Carles Fontserè (Barcelona, 1916 – Porqueres, 2007) was a multifaceted photographer and artist who also expressed his creativity in other disciplines, such as painting, drawing and writing. Born in the early 20th century, he lived through the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) with great intensity; in this context, he sympathised with the Republican side, with whom he worked as an illustrator of political propaganda posters.
In spite of everything, many years later, after having been arrested and imprisoned in a French concentration camp, he did a few artistic interventions in newspapers that suggested positions that were the opposite of his previous views, this time more attuned to authoritarian values. The period he spent in North America (more specifically, in Mexico and the United States), fed into the end of a period when he was in exile, which culminated in his return to Catalonia, thanks to the restoration of democracy.
The artist visited Europe in 1963, immortalising capital cities like London, Paris and Rome with his camera. This exhibition, Relat cartogràfic, encourages us to enjoy his impressions of the capital of Britain through the images he produced, inviting us to play with our imagination.
As a way of making this voyage even livelier, the work shown is complemented by a large London map that covers the floor of the gallery, making it possible for us to travel mentally to a dozen or so public places, the very spots where Fontserè’s gaze, finger and camera were to immortalise the images we can now enjoy.
Are we travelling through the streets of London in 1963?