Paula Anta, Only 01 Series Artificial Paradise, Photography, 2008

Photography of Paula Anta ''Seul 01'' serie ''Artificial Paradise'', 2008. PAULA ANTA Education 2015 European PhD in Fine Arts, Complutense University of Madrid. 2004 Professional Piano Degree (1966 Academic Programme). Exhibitions 2018 “Kanzel”, Pilar Serra Gallery, Madrid. 2017 ''Rêver le noir, rêver une absence“, La Laboral Ciudad de La Cultura, Gijón Photography Encounters. R&P Legal Collection, Frankfurt, Germany. 2014 “In Black” (In Schwarz). PHOTOALC Festival, Aural Gallery, Alicante. “Readers” (Lectoras). Women’s Outlook Festival, Blanca Soto Gallery, Madrid. 2013 “Saints” (Santos). Spanish College, International University City of Paris. 2011 Modern Art Centre “Hospital del Rey”, Melilla. 2010 “Holy Cow!” (Heiliger Bimbam). Heike Strelow Gallery, Frankfurt am Main. “HomeMade”, video exhibition “Sonate No. 1 Augenmusik (Eye Music) K505”, Davis Museum, Barcelona. 2009 “Bring me a leaf of grass from the Edge of the image- Chapter II”. Atelier Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main. 2008 “Palmehuset” (House of Palms). PHOTOESPAÑA XI, International Festival of Photography and Visual Arts, Blanca Soto Gallery, Madrid. 2007 “Sunset Delux-Art”. Residency at Linklaters Art Association, Frankfurt am Main. Awards and scholarships 2016 Estampa 2016, Regional Authority of Madrid Award. 2015 VIII Biennial International Competition of Contemporary Photography “Pilar Citoler” Award. 2012-2013 FormARTE Scholarship for Visual Arts and Photography, Spanish College in Paris. Combat Prize. City of Livorno. Honourable Mention. 2011-2012 Scholarship from Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Spanish Academy in Rome. 2010 AENA Foundation Photography Award. 2009 INICIARTE scholarship for the creation and dissemination of contemporary art. Andalusia Regional Authority. 2008 Art Creation Award, Regional Authority of Madrid. 2007 Shortlisted in the “El Cultural” photography competition, El Mundo, Madrid. Artist in Residence Scholarship, Atelier Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main. 2004 Juan Gris Chair, Jannis Kounellis course. 2002- 2005 Honorary Research Scholarship, Fine Arts College, Complutense University of Madrid. 2002 Scholarship for Workshop Claude Closky, DFSSU Management of IT Projects, Paris. 2001 Scholarship for doctoral tuition overseas, Paris 8 University. 2000 Internship, Audio-visual Media section, Fine Arts College, Complutense University of Madrid. ARTIFICIAL PARADISES Paradise is an enclosure created by man. It is a place of perfection in nature, of reconciliation with our origin, of serenity towards our near reality. Paradises are there, waiting for us. We earn them sometimes, and some other times we are expelled from them and then their very existence becomes a reproach. Paradises are not ephemeral, though. All that belongs to Nature is ephemeral and boundless at the same time. It remains until the infinite and returns to the beginning to wither again and so on, over and over. Paradise escapes us, it slips out in our imagination of what it is. It disappears and then, just like everything we cannot hold, like everything vanishing away from our desire for grasping, it must be replicated, frozen in time, imitated at best, never to be lost again. We contemplate it in all its confines, we study it and scrutinise all its forms, line by line, each with different colours and nuances. We thus hold on to the ephemeral, we stop its decadence, we perpetuate beauty in our urge to negate its own death. The paradise reverts to the logic of the quest. Maybe the last voyage ever to be undertaken is that of defining a paradise through sheer technical mastery, through the use of an apparent wisdom, a meticulous ability to reproduce reality: to create some sort of artificial paradise, a world where everything is reproducible and interminable, and so all appears at last to be perfectly docile and tame. To believe in the absolute harmlessness of such a paradise. And very likely to open up an abyss afresh, a new irony (tragic o comic or perhaps both at the same time) about each petal of each of its artificial flowers, made in the image and according to the likeness of reality. Artificial Paradises intends to be a very own and concrete paradise in a very specific location. The tradition of reproduction/imitation in Asia forms part of its culture. The tenacious aim for perfection, or for the idea of perfection held about things, blurs the confine between what is and its perfect imitation. In Asia the electric colours of the artificial plants and flowers sprinkle every corner of their enclosed world. Plasticised Nature diversifies in all its forms and for all its purposes until the very air is turned into synthetic molecules. Artificial Paradises has been shot in the three main cities of South Korea: Seoul, Busan and Daegu.