WWW.XAVIERRIBAS.COM © Xavier Ribas

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© Xavier Ribas - Incidents (2005) 45 silver gelatin prints + 5 C-Type prints, 50 x 60 cm. Edition of 2
Telefónica Foundation commissioned 8 photographers to work in Distrito C, the future site of the company's new corporate headquarters in
Madrid. This work was produced in December 2005 while the site was still under construction. Distrito C. 8 Visiones (see bellow) was presented
as a book and exhibition in Madrid in September 2007, feautirng all the commissions work by Sergio Belinchón, Bleda y Rosa, Jordi Bernadó,
Manel Esclusa, Aitor Ortíz, Xavier Ribas, Montserrat Soto and Valentín Vallhonrat.
"In the 5th C, Rome was the size of a village, but the palaces of its emperors were still inhabitable"
Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West (1917)
[En] Incidents is inspired by the nine photographs ‘How to dial a telephone number. Photographic instructions’ (see below) from the collection
of the Telefónica Foundation, made by Alfonso in 1926 (the methodology and the spirit is also that of John Gossage). The photographic image
attempts to work, in Alfonso's as in here, like an instructions manual of a new technological artifact destined to change everyday habits, even
though this set of instructions can not possibly help us understand the logic of its functioning, or its aspirations.
With the passage of time, technological artifacts seem to have dematerialised, as if it were impossible to fix the objects with the echo of their
fabrication. Cotemporary technological artifacts sit like outside of time, or their time doesn’t seem to coincide with our biological time. In the
past, technological artifacts had an effect in social life through their actual familiarization in the everyday. Now, on the contrary, they are only
assimilated as ruins: when we get the grips with them they are already obsolete. The feeling is that we can not catch up with technology, that
we can only assimilate it as a relic: technological artifacts get scrapped while still new.
What are the components of this corporate campus, a new technological apparatus in construction? What is it made of this "future of work", as
the company's corporate literature puts it? And, what is it that gets displaced, or eliminated, in terms of the past of the site, but also of
possible futures? I proposed to make an archaeology of the building site. My nine year old son (indeed, we are talking about his future here),
will pick up fragments of materials and objects found in the building site and we will photograph them on location. These objects could either be
from what is being displaced, what was here in the building site before the works began, as well as fragments of what the building itself is
made of, leftovers and residues of its fabrication. In some way, the child makes a reconnaissance of the future that is being put forward for him
as a productive individual.
Incidents is about a suspended space and time. 'Before' and 'after' overlap each other, past of the place and future of the building: What will
be here when this building will eventually collapse? The images try to make visible this state of suspension, they attempt to give it a form
through the connexion of these apparently random objects, found as if by accident. In the background, the half built structures refer to the
future building, just like a ruin refers to the building that has already collapsed. Displacement, construction and ruin, intermingled,
incomprehensible. ---[Cast] Incidentes se inspira en las nueve fotografías 'Cómo marcar un número de teléfono. Instrucciones fotográficas', de la colección de la
Fundación Telefónica, realizadas por Alfonso en 1926. La imagen fotográfica pretende funcionar en ambos casos como un manual de
instrucciones de un aparato tecnológico que está destinado a cambiar los hábitos cotidianos, tanto en el ámbito de lo privado como de lo
público, aunque estas instrucciones no puedan llegar a hacernos comprender la lógica de su funcionamiento ni de sus aspiraciones.
Con el paso del tiempo se ha producido una desmaterialización del objeto tecnológico, como si fuera imposible fijar el objeto con el eco de su
fabricación. El objeto tecnológico contemporaneo está como fuera del tiempo, o su tiempo no parece coincidir con nuestro tiempo biológico. Si
bién anteriormente el objeto tecnológico se afirmaba socialmente a través de su familiarización en la vida cotidiana, en la actualidad, éste
parece afirmarse solamente como ruina: cuando nos familiarizamos con él ya es obsoleto. La sensación es de que no damos abasto con la
tecnología: solamente la podemos conocer, o reconocer, como reliquia: los objetos tecnológicos contemporaneos se desguazan nuevos.
¿Cuales són los componentes de este nuevo aparato tecnológico en construcción? ¿De qué́ está hecho este "futuro del trebajo" que se nos
plantea con é́l? ¿Qué́ es lo que éste desplaza o elimina, tanto en té́rminos de pasado como de futuros posibles? El planteamiento era hacer un
levantamiento arqueológico del lugar a partir de la curiosidad de un niño (en definitiva estamos hablando de su futuro) que recoge fragmentos
materiales en el lugar de la obra siguiendo criterios imprevisibles. Estos fragmentos pueden ser tanto de lo que este futuro desplaza (lo que
había en el lugar antes de la construcción) como de lo que el mismo edificio se compone materialmente. En cierta manera, el niño hace un
reconocimiento de este futuro que se le propone como agente productivo.
Incidentes trata de un espacio y un tiempo suspendido, que ya no es 'antes' y todavía no es 'después'. Ámbos se confunden: pasado del lugar
y futuro del edificio (¿qué habrá aquí cuando éste ya no esté?). Las imágenes hacen visible este estado de suspensión, lo configuran a partir de
la conexión de estos elementos aparentemente casuales, hallados como por azar. En un segundo plano, las estructuras en construcción nos
refieren al futuro edificio, de la misma manera que la ruina nos refiere a su pasado. Desplazamiento, construcción, y ruina, solapados,
incomprensibles.
© Xavier Ribas (2005)
(I would like to acknowledge the suggestions made by Alberto Martín, Txema Onzain and Domi Mora.)
Installation picture of Incidents at the Fundación Telefónica, Madrid, Sept 2007.
Alfonso, How to Dial a Telephone Number. Photographic Instructions. 1926 © Colección Fundación Telefónica