Artist Statement
I am interested in working with experiences where the everyday and actions carried out in front of the camera come together. Photography therefore becomes a vital form of intervention in a reality, which holds the tension between the recreated action and spontaneity, where reflection and intuition converge. It also acts as a space that reveals the fundamental connections in relationships. It is a search for apparitions of a reality that is not always visible. I am enthralled by the threshold between reality and its photographic image, that enigmatic space that eludes interpretations – unique for each spectator. Process Statement
Ana Casas Broda worked for the proyect Kinderwunsch from 2006 to 2011. Kinderwunsch is currently in the process of being a book in which texts and photos construct a narrative and it will be published in a photobook in 2013 by the Spanish editorial La Fábrica and Fundación Televisa.

 

 

Born 1965, in Granada, Spain to an Austrian mother and Spanish father, she spent her first years between those countries. In 1974 she came to live to Mexico City with her mother. Here she studied photography, painting and history and has dedicated to photography since 1983. In 1983 she worked as an assistant for Mr. Manuel Álvarez Bravo. Between 1989 and 1993 Ana lived in Vienna and Madrid and came back to Mexico in 1993 spending long periods of time in Vienna, taking care of her grandmother until her death in 2002.

Ana worked for fourteen years on the project Álbum. First on the series of images with her grandmother in Vienna and later on the development of the book and exhibit, including texts, diaries, images about her ancestors, her grandmother, audios, videos, etc. In 2000, the editorial Mestizo published Álbum in a book of pictures and text, which had the support of the Austrian Department of Culture and the Mexican National Fund for Culture and Arts. This book has been printed in Spanish, German and English. In the year 2001 an exhibition of Álbum was presented at the Centro de la Imagen in Mexico City to accompany the book and in 2002 it was presented within the context of the PhotoEspaña festival at Casa de América, traveling later on to Murcia and Tenerife, Spain.

Since 1991 she has carried out several individual exhibits in Spain, Austria, Germany and Mexico, in museums and galleries like: Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City; Casa de América, Madrid, PhotoEspaña Festival; Railowsky Gallery, Valencia, Spain; Michael Pabst Gallerie, Munich, Germany; Fotohof Gallery, Salzburg, Austria; Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain, among others. And since 1983 she has participated in group exhibitions in Mexico, Austria, Spain, Italy, Finland, Canada, Czech Republic, England, Hungary, China and others, in museums and galleries such as: La Kenyérgyár Art Center,Hungary; La panera Art Center, Lleida, Spain; Guangdong Museum of Art, Pekín, China; Studio Marangoni, Florence, Italy; 7th Internacional Triennal in Tampere, Finland; Feria Internacional de Arte, Arco, Canal de Isabel II, Madrid, Spain; among others. Her work has been included in collections in Germany, Austria, Spain and Mexico. She has been awarded several prizes in Mexico and Austria. From 2008 to 2011 she has been sponsored by the National System for Art Creators, FONCA, in Mexico.

Several biographical outlines have been written about her work in Spanish and English language speaking newspapers such as: The British Journal of Photography, Art in America La Jornada, Reforma, el Financiero, Milenio, El Nacional, El País, and others. She has been interviewed on several radio and television shows. Her photographs have been published in several books in Spain, Austria, Mexico, Argentina and others, such as: C-Photo, The new Latin look, editor Martin Parr, Ivorypress 2011; No sabe/no contesta. Fotografía desde América Latina, Proyect for the Gallery Arte x Arte, Argentina 2008; Conversaciones entorno a la fotografía, Claudí Carreras Guillén, Gustavo Gili editorial, Spain, 2007; Mapas abiertos. 1991/2002, Fotografía contemporánea Latinoamericana, Lunwerg Editors, Spain, 2004, among others.

She works for the proyect Kinderwunsch since 2006 and is finishing in a book. In 2010 part of Kinderwunsch was included in The selfportrait in Contemporary Art, by Susan Bright, Thames and Hudson, London, England.

Along with the development of her work, she has dedicated part of her time since 1990 to the coordination of several activities related to photography, such as: study programs, seminars, workshops and conferences among others. She as well works as a tutor/advisor for the Seminar of Contemporary Photography at the Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City.

 

Cross-Reference