The director general of Culture, Anxo M. Lorenzo, participated in the opening of the exhibition Galicia urbana: a project by Manolo Laguillo, at the Centro Gallego de Arte Contemporáneo (CGAC). The exhibition will be accessible to the public until 7 February and delves into the work of one of Spain's leading figures in documentary and urban photography.
During the inauguration, Lorenzo encouraged attendees to visit the project, describing it as a poetic documentation of the city. He noted that the exhibition presents a visual essay on the impact of urban construction elements and industrial processes on the transformation of the Galician landscape.
Curated by Santiago Olmo, a former director of CGAC, the exhibition is a result of a commission from the centre, with the intention of incorporating it into the museum's permanent collection.
Galicia urbana features a collection of 500 photographs that particularly emphasise the expressive values of architecture, the tensions between construction and ruin, and the interplay between the past and future. The images capture landscapes to highlight the formal, geometric, and compositional values of buildable land, buildings, streets, and trees, often rendering human presence secondary or invisible.
About Manolo Laguillo
Manolo Laguillo, born in Madrid in 1953, studied Philosophy and German Philology at the University of Barcelona, where he began his teaching career in the Faculty of Fine Arts in 1980. He became a tenured professor in 1996 and later served as a professor of Photography until 2024. His artistic practice is complemented by significant essayistic and editorial work, including technical manuals such as El sistema de zonas (1988) and El gran formato (1999), as well as theoretical essays like Razón y ciudad (2013) and the compilation La triple elección. Textos 2000-2025.
Throughout his career, Laguillo has developed numerous photographic projects, including notable series such as Proyecto Eixample, Minas de la Unión, and Diagonal. His work has been featured in significant solo exhibitions at institutions such as MACBA and La Virreina Centre de la Imatge in Barcelona, the Museo Patio Herreriano in Valladolid, and the Museo ICO in Madrid. His photographs are also part of prominent public and private collections, both nationally and internationally.
