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ENTROPY: THE FAR SIDE OF LIGHT

"One word: entropy. Everything that is born dies. When we are born we begin to die. I have been living for 94 years, that is, dying for 94 years. It is a vital process" ( José Luis Sampedro ).
Entropy is the measure of disorder. A concept that comes from physics but is applied in all facets of life and science. According to Professor Kevin Knuth, more precisely, it is a measure of uncertainty, which is why it is often confused with disorder, because a disordered system results in great uncertainty. In psychology, it refers to the amount of uncertainty in our lives and explains why, over time, our lives always seem to become more complicated, not less so.

And of course there is entropy in light too.

If we want to put a physicist in a difficult position, let's ask him or her to briefly answer the following question: What is light? Some will answer that it's a set of particles called photons. Others, that it's waves that travel through space. Both answers are valid. Light carries a duality in its nature: it is both a wave and a particle. The postulation of this duality earned Albert Einstein a Nobel Prize in 1905. The demonstration of this dimorphism involves precisely this concept, unknown to almost everyone, and intrinsically linked to the essence of light: entropy.
Because just as light is both a wave and a particle, it is also energy and entropy.

And that ENTROPY, THE HIDDEN SIDE OF LIGHT, is the leitmotif of this exhibition.
This project was developed as a natural evolution of Gonzalo Ortiz's PLANOS DE LUZ collection, giving rise to his two most recent series: REFLECTIONS of RAIN and REFLECTIONS ON POSTERS.

In the series PLANES OF LIGHT, Gonzalo, armed with this particular perception that comes from seeing life illuminated by the red bulb of a photography laboratory, sets out in search of those light drawings, those stained-glass windows that the sun projects onto any corner of any street. The texture of an old, peeling wall is the perfect canvas where real windows coexist with other, illusory ones, created by those planes of light. Their unpredictable appearance and disappearance, with the mere movement of someone closing or opening a door or balcony, presents light from a new and surprising perspective, visible so fleetingly to our eyes that only a camera lens can capture it. PLANES OF LIGHT was the work of a decade wandering through corners of a multitude of cities, recognizing and capturing those flashes of light that Gustavo Cerati defines so well:
"Bodies of light, running through the sky, crystals of yellow love."
But Gonzalo goes even further, seeking the fleeting nature of his images, that luminous uncertainty, that entropy of light. Thus emerge the series RAIN REFLECTIONS and REFLECTIONS ON SIGNS. Here, even the surfaces on which he discovers these brief shadows are no longer static or permanent, but ephemeral and temporary: a pool of rainwater on the sidewalk, or the shine of a sunlit shop window. Reflections of buildings or anonymous passersby appear on the surface of a puddle, only to dissolve seconds later. Or even more unreal: the reflection of another reflection, another mirage: a billboard. A message of transience and fragility that the artist seeks to convey in these works.

"Warm flashes in the midst of the cold, withered city. Glows of life, of magic."
(Victoria Schwab).

Particles that turn into light and fade back into energy: ENTROPY OF LIGHT. It thus captures that hidden side of light, that magical portion of its nature, disorder or uncertainty, whatever we want to call it.

This exhibition showcases the most abstract and unorthodox Gonzalo Ortiz. Not only conceptually, but also in his photographic technique. He chooses digital photography, a technology in keeping with the immaterial and momentary nature of his subject matter. Ideal for sharpening those luminescent moments and transforming a fleeting shadow into something tangible, capturing a real, corporeal being in the photograph. Color is fundamental here: What is a reflection without its color?

Please immerse yourself in the magic of this exhibition and join the author on his journey in search of ENTROPY, that hidden face of light, forever captured in the shapes and colors of his photographs.

Reflections of signs on the city

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