The Concello de A Coruña is set to organise a series of talks from November to January, linked to the exhibition "Encuentros. Federico García-Cabezón. Retrospective 1968-2026," currently open to the public at Kiosco Alfonso. This initiative aims to deepen the discussion around Galician photography, visual memory, and artistic creation through various conversations with prominent figures in the cultural and photographic fields.
The exhibition, which opened in October, features over 150 images from one of the leading figures in contemporary Galician photography and marks the first major retrospective of his work, showcasing nearly six decades of photographic creation.
The series of activities is designed to contextualise the figure of Federico García-Cabezón and explore, from multiple perspectives, the role of photography as an artistic, documentary, and collective memory-building tool.
Upcoming talks
The programme will kick off on Friday, 13 November, with the talk titled "Federico García-Cabezón: photography, freedom, and the memory of a generation," featuring Xoán Piñón and José Ramón López Calvo. This session will delve into the historical and cultural context of Galician photography in the 1980s and García-Cabezón's role in a generation that helped renew the photographic language in Galicia.
On 27 November, historian and communicator Felipe Senén will lead the discussion "Galicia, images and memory: photography as cultural heritage," reflecting on the role of images in shaping collective identity and preserving the country's cultural memory.
The next event is scheduled for 18 December, titled "Inheriting the gaze, reinventing the territory: contemporary Galician photography," featuring photographers Adra Pallón and Ariadna Silva. This session will address new ways of representing Galicia and the dialogue between new generations of creators and the visual legacy they inherit.
The cycle will conclude on 8 January 2027 with "Photography and the archive," a lecture by Manuel Sendón focusing on the importance of photographic archives for the preservation and dissemination of visual memory, as well as the heritage dimension of photography.
These activities are designed as a space for meeting and exchange around photography, understood not only as an artistic expression but also as a tool for knowledge, interpretation of reality, and preservation of collective memory. All talks are free to attend until capacity is reached.
The exhibition "Encuentros. Federico García-Cabezón. Retrospective 1968-2026" will be on display at Kiosco Alfonso until 10 January.
The exhibition includes some of the most representative series from the Coruña-based photographer's career, dedicated to landscapes, rural life, social memory, the Entroido (a traditional Galician carnival), portraits, and transformations in contemporary Galicia.
