Pérez Siquier / Colours & Constrasts of Spain

La Chanca

The exhibition includes Pérez Siquier's series La Chanca, in which he uses candid photography to document the identity of a poor working-class neighbourhood in his native Almería. In this series, Pérez Siquier - first in black and white and later in colour - uses candid photography to document the identity of the area, looking beneath and beyond its impoverishment and neglect. He gives the residents their own voice and introduces a new element within the neorealist genre: a sense of humour.

¡Vamos a La Playa!

Another important theme in the exhibition is the use of colour. In the 1960s Pérez Siquier switched to colour film and produced intense, strongly contrasting images. His work reflects the kitsch idiom of the consumer society that was emerging due to the rise of mass tourism along the Mediterranean coast. Pérez Siquier observes this phenomenon with a mixture of interest and astonishment. The series La Playa (1972-1980), in which he zooms in on the wave of tourists surging onto the beaches of Almería and the rest of the Spanish Mediterranean coast, sealed Pérez Siquier’s reputation as a pioneer of colour photography – a medium that had hitherto enjoyed little artistic respect.

Collection presentation: Coco Capitán

Alongside the retrospective of Pérez Siquier's work, Huis Marseille presents a selection of the photographic work of Spanish artist Coco Capitán.