If you’ve made it to Miami, especially during Art Basel Miami, you might have seen one of the best private photography collections at Marty Margulies’ Warehouse. I’m glad to see the collection is being seen in a wider venue, like in Spain. Wish I could see it.

From a recent email:
The Barrié Foundation will present the photography exhibition “The Dwelling Life of Man. Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Collection” in A Coruña between June and September
Barrié Foundation, A Coruña
8th june- 25th September 2011
Foto Colectania Foundation, Barcelona
February – April 2012

This exhibition is the first co-production between the Barrié Foundation and the Foto Colectania Foundation in Barcelona, where the exhibition will be shown in 2012.

“The Dwelling Life of Man. Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Collection”, curated by Régis Durand and sponsored by Banco Pastor, will be exhibited from June 8 to September 25 at the Barrie Foundation in A Coruña (Canton Grande, 9)

The exhibition includes 50 authors and more than 165 images, which belong to the American collector Martin Z. Margulies.

The exhibition will be supplemented by free educational programs and the publication of a catalog containing a broad investigation on the Margulies Collection.

A Coruña, April 2011 – The Barrié Foundation presents the exhibition The Dwelling Life of Man, Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Collection”, co-produced together with the Foto Colectania Foundation in Barcelona, for the first time in Europe at its venue in A Coruña between June 8 and September 25.

Through 50 authors and 165 photographs and videos from the collection of Martin Z. Margulies in Miami, the exhibition, curated by Régis Durand, explores the question of how man lives in the world, appropriates it, changes it and finally leaves his/her mark on the reality of emotions, life, work or nature.

The idea of the exhibition originates from the relationship between the collector Martin Z. Margulies and Mario Rotllant, president of Foto Colectania, an institution that has been working with important international photography collections for the last ten years, and is based on the interest of the Barrié Foundation to bring high quality collections and photography exhibitions to Spain. For Mario Rotllant, “the idea of bringing the Margulies Collection to Europe is a privilege; apart from my friendship and admiration towards Martin and his wife, Constance, it is one of the most important collections worldwide.”

José María Arias, president of the Barrié Foundation and Banco Pastor comments: “With this exhibition, the Barrie Foundation continues its commitment to contemporary photography as the core of its cultural and educational programming, and to bring to Galicia exhibition proposals that provide the public options to reflect about the world we inhabit.”

Régis Durand, curator of the show, explains that the title of this exhibition comes from one of the late poems by the German poet Friedrich Hölderlin on the question of how man inhabits the world, and the brilliant analysis that the German philosopher Martin Heidegger wrote about it. In its broadest sense, this issue is an essential feature in the work of many artists. However, by investigating the remarkable collection of Martin Z. Margulies it has been possible to conceive an exhibition that explores different aspects of this issue around three areas that form the show:

Part I. “Building, Dwelling : Mapping the Territories”.-This section investigates how the two notions of building and dwelling differ while being closely related, as we go back and forth between views of architecture, of buildings of all kinds, real or imagined, and a more metaphorical or spiritual vision. If « dwelling is the manner in which mortals are on earth », then each building photographed, each image of our cities, says something of the way we want to stand in the world and appropriate it, leave our mark on it, and project on it our hopes and fears.

This section includes very important names in the history of the medium, such as Lewis Baltz, Thomas Demand, Stephen Shore or Ed Rudscha. We can highlight Alain Bublex’s “Plug-In City”, which is originated in the project conducted by the British architect Peter Cook in 1964 with the aim to create a modular city that constantly changes according to our needs. In contrast to this work, James Casabere photographs small spaces and architectural models of different spaces of confinement such as cells, halls or hospitals, all of which are places where man could not live unless it is enforced in a way.

Part II. “Being in the world”.- This section looks into the ways human beings measure themselves against the reality of life -work, the presence of others, the reality of the collective social space. As a proof of this we can use the renowned series that Lee Friedlander created in the 60s and 70s, “Factory Valley”, which shows the fundamental changes occurred in industry. We can also highlight the resonance revealed between the work of Albert Renger-Patzsch showing a factory machinery of the 50s and the work “Maschinen 1073” by Thomas Ruff, created in 2003 from an old photo negative not taken by the artist although digitally manipulated by him.This part also concerns itself with the way we, individually or in groups, attempt to represent ourselves or others. Portraits, therefore, are prominent in this section. Depicting people, at work or at play, in a straightforward manner or disguised or masked, is always a political act -a foray into the nature of identity and the formal strategies used in order to give such representations a certain veracity (or at least the illusion of it).This is the case of the work Trauma by Gillian Wearing, where the person in the photograph is wearing a grotesque mask of latex that hides its true face and emotions. This section also includes important works by Bernice Abbott, Helen Levitt, Dorothea Lange, Pieter Hugo and Zwelethu Mthethwa, among others.

Part III, “Flux, signs and symbols”, shows how photographers attempt to capture something of the mutability and evanescence of appearances. Faces, landscapes fluctuate constantly like the weather or the surface of water. The challenge to photography, a static image, is to capture something of the flow and passage of time. To do so, artists turn to various strategies; they become interested in traces, imprints of all kinds, anything that bespeaks a «real» connection with phenomena. This is the case of the work by William Eggleston, whose special use of light and color allows creating a world at its own dimensions, where time seems to stand still, and where each image shows a view partly real and partly imagined. In other cases, trading an illusion for another, artists turn to fabricated images, made up from various layers of time and experience. This is the case of the work by Andreas Gursky, “Highway, Bremen, 1991” which, as in many other works of his, represents what has been termed a “non-place” or Gregory Crewdson who, also linked to the tradition of a more pictorial photography, shows us in “Merchant Row” a pregnant woman who seems to float in the uncertainty of a mysterious urban landscape.

The catalog “The Dwelling Life of Man. Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Collection.”

The exhibition will be accompanied by an illustrated catalog, co-edited by the Barrié Foundation and the Foto Colectania Foundation. This book is an opportunity to bring together an exquisite selection of photographs of this important international collection. The catalog includes a theoretical text in which the curator Régis Durand explains the concept of the exhibition, as well as a conversation between him and Martin Z. Margulies on the objectives and main themes of the collection.

Publication:
Dimensions: 22×27 cm
100 illustrationsinb/ wandcolor
Languages: Spanish, English, Galician, Catalan
Pages: 224
ISBN Fundación Barrié: 978-84-9752-028-7

The Collector Martin Z. Margulies
Martin Z. Margulies is a man with a passion for art, a fact that influences every facet of his life. A graduate of the Wharton School of Finance of the University of Pennsylvania, and a successful developer of South Florida luxury real estate projects for the past 35 years, he began collecting in 1976 with the purchase of a work by Isamu Noguchi, and has gone on to build one of the major collections of contemporary American and European art in the world today.

Consistently named to lists such as the ARTnews 200 The World’s Top Collectors, and the top 25 photography collectors in the world, the Margulies Collection is considered by curators, critics, artists and dealers as one of the most important collections of its kind. Focusing on seminal works by important artists, the collection includes European Modernism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Minimalism, Conceptual, Arte Provera, Video, Vintage and Contemporary Photography. Mr. Margulies is deeply involved in the nation’s visual arts community. He is a Grand Founder of the Lowe Art Museum of the University of Miami. He has served on the Collector’s Committee of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. He served on the Board of the International Sculpture Center in Washington, D.C. and received a Doctorate of Fine Arts, Honoris Causa from Florida International University, Miami. Mr. Margulies also served as a board member of the Smithsonian American Art Museum Commission and on the Board of Trustees of the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum.

He has been honored by the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City as a distinguished leader of the global art community, citing his role as a collector, philanthropist and enthusiast whose long standing commitment to contemporary arts and artists best reflects the New Museum’s belief that contemporary culture is a vital part of life.

While many of the paintings and sculptures in the collection are displayed throughout his own home in Key Biscayne, the Margulies Collection of photography, video installations and larger sculptures has been housed since 1999 in a 45,000 sq. ft. retro-fitted warehouse in Miami’s Wynwood Art District, The Warehouse. It is frequently used as an educational venue for local and out-of-town groups studying the visual arts. The purpose of The Warehouse, according to Mr. Margulies, is to bring together cutting edge work by both established and emerging artists, and he is well known for acting as a highly knowledgeable “tour guide” for visiting school groups.

Mr. Margulies is recognized as a dedicated community activist, with a longstanding commitment to the welfare of underprivileged youngsters. He funded $2.5 million for the construction of a newly created Overtown Youth Center in downtown Miami. The 18,000 sq. ft. facility provides much needed social, recreation and educational programs, including computer classes, sports and arts and crafts. Margulies has also been a major contributor to the Lotus House Shelter for Homeless Women and Children also in Overtown. He provided funds for the shelter to expand and provide services to pregnant women and their newborn infants and recently he established an endowment which will allow the shelter to continue to provide for poor, disadvantaged and distressed women and infants.

In 2008, the Margulies Collection published a beautifully illustrated hardcover book, The Martin Z. Margulies Collection: Painting and Sculpture. The 350 page volume offers an overview of the Margulies’ painting and sculpture collection widely considered by critics, curators, artists and dealers as one of the most extensive and renowned contemporary art collections in the world. The book includes comments written by the same Margulies and curator Katherine Hinds, explaining why and how certain works were added to the collection, to bring readers to the mind and heart of a collector . It includes introductory essays by the critic Peter Plagens of Newsweek and the renowned writer and curator Klaus Kertess. All proceeds from book sales will revert to the Lotus House.

The Martin Z. Margulies Foundation was organized 30 years ago with the mission to provide arts education free of charge to the public. Believing that education can help break the chain of poverty the philanthropy and programming of the Foundation focuses on students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Régis Durand, exhibition curator

Régis Durand has worked alternatively in the academic and in the art world. A University Professor, he has also written extensively on photography and contemporary art, and curated many exhibitions. After a few years at the Ministry of culture, he was artistic director of the Printemps de Cahors (1992-1996), Director of the Centre national de la photographie in Paris (1996-2003), and Director of the Jeu de Paume, Paris (2003-2006). Now an independent curator and consultant, he has recently been appointed Director of the Printemps de Septembre_ à Toulouse, a festival of contemporary arts. Among his recent publications, L’Excès et le Reste-Essais sur l’expérience photographique, Editions de la Différence, Paris, 2006 ; La Photographie n’est pas l’art-Collection Silvio Perlstein , Musées d’Ixelles et de Strasbourg, 2010 ; « Jürgen Klauke : Energy, Signs, Metamorphoses », in Jürgen Klauke, Äesthetische Paranoia , Karlsruhe, ZKM, 2010 ; « Une collection de sculptures », in Sculptures de la collection Lhoist, Limelette, Belgique, 2010 (…)

The Barrie Foundation and its relationship with Photography
As it is usual in its exhibition program, the Foundation will design a complete educational program parallel to the exhibition, free to the public, and adapted to different audiences: family workshops, tours, summer camps and group activities.

With this exhibition, the Barrie foundation continues its line of temporary exhibitions dedicated to masters of photography, which in recent years has allowed us to show the work of great photographers such as Paul Strand, Arnold Newman, Edward Weston, Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, or photography and film from the George Eastman House. Very recently the Foundation showed at its venue of Vigo the work of the Brazilian Caio Reisewitz and of Francesc Català-Roca, one of the masters of Spanish photography.

The Barrie Foundation is a private foundation established and endowed in 1966 by the Galician entrepreneur Pedro Barrie de la Maza (1888-1971), which dedicates its resources to the design, implementation and funding of programs and projects aimed at promoting sustainable development in Galicia. Classified as a charitable-educational foundation and of Galician interest, the Foundation promotes projects and activities under four areas: Heritage and Culture, Education and Research and Social Services.

The Foto Colectania Foundation

Founded in Barcelona in 2002, the Foto Colectania Foundation is a private nonprofit organization that aims to disseminate photography and photography collecting. It has a permanent collection of more than two thousand works by Spanish and Portuguese photographers from the 50s until today. The Foundation is responsible for the preservation, dissemination and study of these works.

The Foto Colectania Foundation organizes exhibitions under three conceptual lines: present great masters who have changed the course of the history of photography, display important public and private collections of photography and be in contact with the work of contemporary Spanish photographers. The Foundation also organizes outreach activities to promote various aspects of photography (lecture programs, symposiums, photo projections) as well as tour exhibitions.