CONSERVAR A MEMORIA PRESERVING THE MEMORY

CHAS

Edicin Manuel Sendn X.L. Surez Canal Revisin lingstica e traducin galego Xon Cibeira Traducin ingls Sabela Garca Sendn Edicin de 1.000 exemplares Edita: Centro de Estudos Fotogrficos Imprime: Litonor ISBN: 978-84-87882-38-8 Dep. Legal: C 3696-2010

Agradecementos:
mia familia e amigos, por aturarme todos estes anos; ao Museo do Mar de Galicia e ao Centro de Estudos Fotogrficos de Vigo, por esta oportunidade; a Casanova Fotografa, especialmente a Miquel ngel Prez e Marcos Rodrigo, pola sa profesionalidade e axuda; a Laboratori Cpia (Barcelona) e Colatec (A Corua); a todos aqueles que nalgn momento me botaron unha man co proxecto. E especialmente a ti, Rebeca.

II BOLSA DE CREACIN FOTOGRFICA convocada polo MUSEO DO MAR en colaboracin co CENTRO DE ESTUDOS FOTOGRFICOS
II GRANT FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC CREATION given by the MUSEO DO MAR in collaboration with the CENTRO DE ESTUDOS FOTOGRFICOS

www.cefvigo.com

CONSERVAR A MEMORIA

Chas

DO TRINQUE

PAISAXES DE TRABALLO O ltimo terzo do sculo XVIII viu agromar unha nova paisaxe no litoral galego. A sardia, que de sempre serviu de sustento s comunidades marieiras de Galiza, vai ser a estrela desta revolucin. Tal como acontecera noutrora cos romanos, xente chegada do Mediterrneo, os fomentadores catalns fixaron os seus intereses econmicos no recurso mis abondoso do mar galego. Mais a diferenza da prctica habitual dos gremios, a conservacin da sardia mediante salga non an facela en loxes ou loxas nos barrios marieiros como A Moureira de Pontevedra. Construron almacns ao p do mar, con ramplas para facilitar a chegada do peixe, do sal e mesmo a exportacin da sardia xa elaborada co sistema de prensado, diferente do mtodo de escochado empregado polos gremios. De xeito pasenio pero constante, a paisaxe costeira a inzarse de almacns de salga que para a sa construcin empregaban como materias primas a pedra e madeira. Con todo, pouco tempo despois de que Nicols Appert idease o seu mtodo de conservacin de alimentos, aos almacns de salga anselles engadir as fbricas de conservas de peixes e marisco. Unha nova fasqua no litoral na que destacaban as chemineas e os tellados a das augas en naves que decote aumentaban a sa superficie de traballo engadindo novas naves. Co tempo estas novas fbricas substituron a salga, cuxas instalacins pasaron a incorporarse nas novas fbricas ou, simplemente, ficaron abandonadas. O auxe da conserva continuou at o ltimo terzo do sculo XX, deixando cada perodo unha pegada, un xeito de construr caracterstico. Mais o tempo fai modificar hbitos e intro-

duce novas formas de presentacin e de conservacin dos alimentos. Moitas conserveiras cesaron na sa actividade e outras foron trasladadas cara a polgonos industriais. Chas, claramente inspirado nos postulados artsticos ideados por Becher na sa ctedra de Dsseldorf, traballa esta paisaxe industrial de outrora, evitando, xa que logo, elementos alleos propia concepcin da construcin, da fbrica, que quere amosar sen excesos de luz nin grandes contrastes que dificulten a comprensin harmnica da sa obra. Esta depurada tcnica permtenos seguir a pegada do tempo nos modos construtivos, o carcter integrador dalgunhas construcins e mesmo o desarraigo doutras propostas. Pero tamn permite inferir un valor intanxbel: a memoria das mulleres e homes que traballaron no gran alicerce do complexo mar-industria galego. Unhas memorias cargadas de xornadas interminbeis de traballo, de defensa de dereitos, de cancins, de procura dun futuro mellor, de benestar e mesmo de incertezas e cambios que axia agroman ao albiscar estas paisaxes de traballo. Paisaxes que conservan a memoria. Prezado Chas: grazas polo teu traballo, polo teu afn por conservar esta memoria. E a Manuel Sendn e Xos Lus Surez, polo seu labor como coordinadores do proxecto. Agardo que esta achega ao mundo industrial da conserva sirva como reflexin sobre a importancia de coecer a nosa historia e valorar o noso patrimonio industrial, imprescindbel para entender como os galegos nos relacionamos co noso medio e solucionamos noutrora as nosas necesidades vitais. Se cadra, grazas a este coecemento, a estas referencias, seremos quen de construr un futuro mis en sintona coa nosa paisaxe, co noso medio natural, o ben mis prezado que temos e, porn, mis descoecido e ignorado.
Pablo Carrera Director do Museo do Mar
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WORKING LANDSCAPES The last third of the XVIII century brought about a new landscape to the Galician coastal. The sardine, which had always suited the needs of the Galician seafaring people, is going to be the star of this revolution. As it had already happened with the Romans, the people from the Mediterranean and the Catalonian investors also laid down their economic interests in the most abundant resource in Galicia. But unlike the trades traditional practice, the sardines conservation by the use of salt was not going to be made at fish markets or warehouses in the maritime quarters such as A moureira de Pontevedra. Warehouses were built right beside the sea, with ramps in order to facilitate the entry of the fish and the salt or the exportation of the already produced sardine by means of the compressed system, which was different from the escochado* system, which used to be common in the trade. Little by little the coastal landscape started to be filled with salting warehouses which required stone and wood in order to be built. As a matter of fact, some time after Nicolas Appert devised his food conservation method, to the fish salting warehouses were to be added the canned fish and seafood factories. A new appearance emerges in the coastal area, with prominent chimneys and gable roofs standing out in premises which used to widen the work area by adding new ones. Little by little, these new factories substituted the salting process, whose installations were incorporated into the new factories or they simply remained abandoned. The canning industry reached its peak in the last third of the 20th century and every period left an unmistakable mark, a distinctive style of building. But lifestyles changed with time,
*Traditional practice of gutting a fish, removing the head and spine by cutting it open.
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introducing new ways of food presentation and conservation. Many canning factories ceased their activity and others were transferred to the industrial areas. Clearly inspired by the artistic postulates devised by Becher on his Dsseldorf professorship, Chas works this old industrial landscape avoiding those elements outside his own conception of construction or of the factory itself and this becomes apparent in his works: no light excesses or great contrasts which would make the harmonic comprehension of his work difficult. This refined technique allows us to follow the marks of time through the different building styles, the integrating character of some constructions and at the same time the uprooting of other proposals. But it also allows us to infer an intangible effect: the memory of those men and women who built the foundations of the Galician sea-industry. Memories filled with unending working hours, rights defence, songs, the pursuit of a better future, comfort, uncertainty or changes and all of it flourishes every time we come across these work landscapes. Landscapes to preserve our memory. Dear Chas: thank you for your work, your eagerness to protect this memory. And thanks to Manuel Sendn and Xos Lus Surez for their labour as project coordinators. I hope this approach to the world of the canning industry can be seen as a reflection on the importance of knowing our history and valuing our industrial patrimony, which is essential in order to understand how Galician people mix with their environment and how we used to satisfy our main needs in the past. Maybe thanks to this recognition, to these references, we will be able to build a future more in tune with our landscape, with our natural environment, our most worthy possession and therefore the most unknown and ignored.
Pablo Carrera Director do Museo do Mar
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FOTOGRAFA: A MEMORIA ENLATADA Na orixe deste proxecto atopamos a necesidade de rescatar unha parte da nosa historia e do noso patrimonio. esa parte onde iniciamos o noso camio como sociedade moderna e industrial. Recuperala a travs do visor dunha cmara fotogrfica pareceume a forma mis axeitada, por varios motivos. En primeiro lugar, porque fotografar estas vellas fbricas supn un regreso aos inicios da historia fotogrfica. O uso da cmara para a elaboracin dun arquivo, a eleccin dunha temtica que versa sobre a arquitectura, a exploracin e os cambios sufridos no territorio, a utilizacin da imaxe fotogrfica como unha tecnoloxa que nos permite ter unha visin pausada da realidade son cuestins inherentes ao medio fotogrfico dende a sa orixe. En segundo lugar, porque, curiosamente, a invencin da fotografa e a da conserva hermtica de peixe son practicamente coetneas. E non acaban aqu os paralelismos; en ambos os casos obtemos produtos derivados dunha mecanizacin, pensados para prolongar a sa duracin no tempo. Poderiamos chegar a definir a fotografa coma un mtodo de conserva de espazos, de persoas, de momentos; unha especie de memoria en lata, mis anda cando penso naquelas caixas de latn onde se gardaban as vellas fotografas familiares. Presento, polo tanto, un proxecto que intenta ir mis al do simplemente captado pola cmara. Non se trata da realizacin dun mero exercicio de arquivo. unha reflexin acerca dos cambios experimentados na sociedade e no territorio. devolverlles por un intre a estes edificios aquela importancia que algn da tiveron a travs dunha mirada limpa e respectuosa. unha forma de non esquecer, unha maneira de conservar a memoria. Chas
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PHOTOGRAPHY: THE CANNED MEMORY In the origins of this Project we found the need to rescue a part of our history and our patrimony. It is exactly in that spot where our path as a modern and industrial society begins. Reviving it through the viewfinder of a photographic camera seemed to me the perfect way for various reasons. In the first place, photographing these beautiful factories involves a shift in time to the come-backs of the photographic history. The use of the camera in order to create an archive, the election of a topic dealing with architecture, the exploration and the changes which took place in the area and the use of an image as the technology which will allow us to have a paused vision of reality, are questions which are inherent to the photographic medium from its beginnings. In the second place, it is also true that the invention of photography and the birth of the hermetic fish conservation method are practically contemporaries. The parallelisms do not end here; in both cases we do obtain manufacture-derived products, devised to prolong their average-life. We could finally come to define photography as a way of preserving people, spaces, moments; it is a sort of canned memory, even more when I think of those brass containers in which the old family pictures used to be kept. Therefore, I present a Project which tries to go further than what is simply captured by the camera. It extends beyond the creation of a mere archive. It is a reflection on those changes experienced by a society and a territory. It tries to give these buildings back, for an instance, the importance that they once had from a clear and respectful standpoint. It is a way of not forgetting, a way of preserving the memory. Chas
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CONSERVAR A MEMORIA PRESERVING THE MEMORY

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Localizacins / Locations
Px. Px. Px. Px. Px. Px. Px. Px. Px. Px. Px. Px. Px. Px. Px. Px. Px. 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 21 22 23 24-25 26 27 29 30 31 32-33 Corrubedo (Riveira) Castieiras (Riveira) Nois (Foz) Espasante (Ortigueira) Quilmas (Carnota) Tal (Muros) Cangas Bueu A Illa de Arousa Carril (Vilagarca) Riveira O Grove Mors (Xove) Cangas O Vicedo Ho (Cangas) O Vicedo Px. 34 Px. 35 Px. 37 Px. 38-39 Px. 40-41 Px. 43 Px. 44 Px. 45 Px. 46-47 Px. 48 Px. 49 Pax. 51 Px. 52-53 Px. 54 Px. 55 Px. 56-57 Mors (Xove) O Grove A Pobra do Caramial Canelias (Cee) Ho (Cangas) Esteiro (Muros) Cangas Vilanova de Arousa O Grove Lira (Carnota) Escarabote (Boiro) Muros Carril (Vilagarca) O Grove A Illa de Arousa Cangas

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CHAS
(Xos Anxo Fontenla Chas) Nado en Pontevedra en 1976, licnciase en Belas Artes, na especialidade de Escultura, na facultade de Pontevedra no ano 2003 e especialzase en Fotografa de Arquitectura no IEFC (Institut dEstudis Fotografics de Catalunya), en Barcelona, en 2005. Dende 2003 ten participado en diversas exposicins colectivas: VI Premio Auditorio de Galicia para novos artistas (Santiago de Compostela, 2009); Arquitectures i espais, alumnes IEFC (Barcelona, 2007); 5 Biennal de Fotografa de Vic (Vic, 2007); IV Premio Auditorio de Galicia para novos artistas, (Santiago de Compostela, 2005); In Situ-Site Based Project (Illa da Xunqueira, Pontevedra e Central Space Gallery, Londres, 2004); Malas Artes, Arquitrabes (Vigo, 2003). Tamn realiza exposicin individuais como Preventorio, Sala Alterarte (Ourense, 2009); Vanitas, Espai Photografic, Col.legi dArquitectes de Catalunya, (Barcelona, 2007) Ten publicado as sas fotos na revista EXIT (n. 24) e no semanario A Nosa Terra (n. 1324).

www.jfchas.com

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CHAS
(Xos Anxo Fontenla Chas) Born in Pontevedra in 1976, he graduated in Fine Arts from the University of Pontevedra in 2003, choosing Sculpture as his speciality and later he specialised in Architectural Photography at the IEFC (Institut dEstudis Fotografics de Catalunya) in Barcelona in 2005. Since 2003, he has taken part in several group exhibitions: VI Premio Auditorio de Galicia para novos artistas (Santiago de Compostela, 2009); Arquitectures i espais, alumnes IEFC (Barcelona, 2007); 5 Biennal de Fotografa de Vic (Vic, 2007); IV Premio Auditorio de Galicia para novos artistas, (Santiago de Compostela, 2005); In Situ-Site Based Project, (Illa da Xunqueira, Pontevedra and Central Space Gallery, London, 2004); Malas Artes, Arquitrabes (Vigo, 2003). He also stages solo exhibitions: Preventorio, Sala Alterarte (Ourense, 2009); Vanitas, Espai Fotogrfic, Collegi dArquitectes de Catalunya, (Barcelona, 2007) His photographs have also been published in EXIT magazine (n 24) and in the weekly magazine A Nosa Terra (n 1324). www.jfchas.com

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DO TRINQUE

1. Cartas fisgona. Rut Mass 2. Wojciech Prazmowski 3. A imaxe e semellanza. Fran Herbello 4. Belgravia. Karen Knorr 5. Postais dun soo Ruth Thorne-Thomsen 6. Antoine DAgata 7. H dunha fotografa de xoguete Marcos Vilario 8. Aziz+Cucher 9. Formas de ser. Andrea Costas 10. Joachim Schmid 11. Luis Gonzlez Palma

12. Vida e morte das estatuas Victoria Diehl 13. Leccins de memoria Olalla Garca San Len 14. Jos Ramn Bas 15. Milagros de la Torre 16. Mal de Corpo. Fran Herbello 17. Persoal e transferbel Andrea Costas 18. Jos Manuel Fors 19. Graciela Sacco 20. Reflexins. Olga Osorio 21. No grande azul. Jose Romay 22. Conservar a memoria. Chas

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