Jon Cazenave

JON CAZENAVE. Spain, 1972. Lives and works in Barcelona and San Sebastian.

Jon Cazenave received his B.A. in Economic Sciences from the Universidad de Deusto. After working for five years in the finance world, he decided to move to Barcelona in order to study photography. Since 2006, Cazenave has been developing a long-term research project called GALERNA, which focuses the attention on the idiosyncrasy and aesthetics of the Basque Country. GALERNA has an anthropological perspective, using signs and symbols in regard to contemporary processes of creation. Since 2014 Cazenave participates in collective creation projects such as HORIZON, an investigation laboratory developed with Julian Baron, and IXIL AR, a photographic dialogue around the figure of Jorge Oteiza in collaboration with Alejandro Marote and Gonzalo Golpe.

Jon Cazenave has participated in several international photography festivals such as Les Rencontres de la Photographie d'Arles (France), Noorderlicht (The Netherlands), PhotoEspaña (Spain), TIPF (Japan), Encontros da Imagem de Braga (Portugal), Tbilisi Photo (Georgia) and Getxophoto (Spain). His work has been awarded in contests like FotoPress La Caixa (Spain), Descubrimientos PhotoEspaña (Spain), Tokyo International Photography Award (Japan), PDN Student Award (USA) and Voices Off Arles (France). In 2016 Cazenave was selected to participate in the 18th edition of the program ‘European Eyes on Japan’ as a representative of San Sebastian as the ‘European Capital of Culture, 2016’.

Available works:

AMA LUR  is the closing chapter of Galerna, an investigation project that Jon Cazenave embarked on 8 years ago. Harking back to the Late Stone Age, Cazenave focuses his inquiry on the symbolic and ritualistic world of cave paintings on both sides of the Pyrenean watershed, reinterpreting the traces left behind by the human beings who inhabited that environment. “In Vasque, URAITZ means Stone Water. The stone matter is molded by the water and is the water what emulsifies the red painting obtained by the stone that I apply afterwards. EME OBENE means Obene Female. Obene is the name of the forest where I shoot that image. SAKON means Deep. A cavity and the water are feminine symbols of deepness and gestation”.

JOKU ZUBIETA consists of a group of photographs taken while the author playing ball in the pediment. The game is done with the left hand while his right hand the same with the camera documented. The resulting piece is intended to reflect the tempo and, in turn, establish a harmonious relationship between point, line, plane and color. We can see how the black sphere sometimes seems a point and sometimes the volume and approach make it become a sphere.