Text by Pablo Íñigo Argüelles
In 2022, after meeting in the Creative Practices program of the International Center of Photography, in New York, ten artists from different parts of the world decided to found the Small Table Collective, an artistic group that bases its work on the various disciplines and artistic practices of each of them but focuses its gaze on photography, both digital and analog. Its main impulse is to promote the different views of its members through printed publications and photographic exhibitions.
Bilder von Maria Prieto
During 2022 and most of 2023, the Small Table Collective (formed by Ana Aizer, María Prieto, Flor Crosta, Pablo Íñigo Argüelles, Federico Rabinovich, Victoria Manzoli, Emile Kees, Zoila Molina, Raine Roberts and Cecilie Mengel) explored diverse topics through their individual projects in the ICP program, from the concept of city, architecture, to human relationships and the everyday relation with body and nature. Then, in 2023, through the publication of their first zine, they presented the first joint work uniting their visions. By mid 2023, they were all part of the group exhibition Lifelines, at the ICP museum, which meant the culmination of projects but at the same time the beginning of new ones.
Bild von Flor Crosta
Now, with the presentation of «I know this place», their first international exhibition in Unterägeri, Switzerland, curated by Flor Crosta, Emile Kees and María Prieto, the artists unite their visions and concepts of home and the idea of returning to their origins with images that depict nostalgia, love and pain. There are more than 20 photographs that explore the nostalgia of being away from home, the pain of returning and the representation of physical places through metaphors of light and dust.
Bilder von Emile Kees
Each and every one of the images that make up the exhibition were produced in New York City and now make up an exhibition that undoubtedly marks the beginning of many projects for these international artists. Currently, most of the members of the collective reside in New York, but some of them have also returned to their places of origin or undertaken other projects in new places, which represents the principle of this collective, which is that, through art, communication and friendship transcend borders and are able to unite completely opposite worlds.
According to the curators of the exhibition, new projects are coming soon for the collective, as well as new exhibitions and the production of a new zine that will be presented and sold through various platforms.
12. Juli 2024