Guatemala in the First Exhibition of Guests of Today. The Latest Latin American Schools of Creative Photography

Guests of Today is a series of exhibitions and artistic residencies in Madrid developed throughout 2014. This project curated by Marta Soul, showcases the new panorama of Latin American photography that is emerging with the support of independent art and photography schools. The schools selected for the project are: Gimnasio de Arte (Mexico), La Fototeca (Guatemala City), Estudio Madalena (Brazil) and Escuela Arcos (Chile). All these institutions illustrate the creative moment that Latin America is undergoing as a region immerse in an important process of generational transformation. The project proposes a closer look at the new independent photography schools that offer innovative visions in this artistic discipline. The current state of a geographic area of these dimensions includes a heterogeneity of visions and formats that will gradually be shown through five exhibitions. Consisting of works by six artists from La Fototeca (Guatemala City), the first exhibition will open to the public from March 7 through May 4 of 2014 at CentroCentro. Founded in 2010, this school of photography has changed artistic education by promoting photography through the celebration of events that have attracted international attention, like the Guatephoto Festival. The photographers selected—Freddy Murphy, Luigi Coguox, Andrea Vargas, David Escobar, Alejandro Medina and Ana Werren—have based their projects in very different proposals that range from social intent, to portraits of everyday life, to, finally, personal inquiries. The event also offers lodging in Madrid for one week to a student selected as an artist that is representative of each school. Photographer Luigi Cogoux has been granted the residency for this first project. During his/her stay in the city, each photographer in residency will elaborate a project that will be supervised by a specialized tutor. The exhibition program will conclude with the exhibition of the works created by the four artists from each of the Latin American schools.