Andrea Santolaya invites us to the Institut Français of Spain in Madrid to contemplate her latest project, Rugby Nation. She plunged into a new family, that of the city of Biarritz’s rugby team, Olympique – Pays Basque, a real legend of French rugby.
For the occasion of the club’s centenary, Andrea spent the last three months of the season with them and approached her work with the sense of living through one of the most intense and mentally one of the hardest moments for this rugby family.
As in earlier work, Andrea showed great restraint when she was taking photographs during the matches. The detail of the scrum, or a throw-in with the players suspended in mid-air like dancers, trying to catch the ball.
Time after time, we discover the interior of the stadium, the changing rooms, the gym and a whole collection of details, subtle and revealing, that speak to us of the daily lives of these heroes of our time and the people who work with them and look after them: trainers, masseurs, groundsmen…
Her interest in portraits, – be they individuals or groups, – in the body, the daily life of communities who live on the edges of society, be they boxers in Brooklyn, Russian dancers, indigenous people from the Orinoco or professional rugby players – never stops growing. And with that she develops her capacity to shape her understanding of the world, and to let us share her hectic and tireless journey. We can only congratulate her for it.
EXHIBITION
Nation Rugby
Andrea Santolaya
Last Days ! From April 8 to May 13th, 2016
Galerie du 10
C/ Marqués de la Ensenada, 10
Madrid
Spain
http://www.andreasantolaya.com
