Project commissioned by Imagen Salvaje and Valparaiso International Photo Festival FIFV to reinterpret the photobook CURAUMA (FIFV Ediciones, 2017) of the French photographer Bertrand Meunier. In 2014, 400 copies of Bertrand's book Curauma (FIFV Ediciones, 2014) were removed from circulation due to printing errors. After 12 years in storage, these copies were recycled to reactivate a sparkling new visual dialogue with the 34 black-and-white plates, using the author's consent.
The festival invited six Ibero-American artists to intervene in these discarded books. Alvarez's version depicts the twin city of Valparaíso (Florida, US), home to the largest military airbase in the world. Separated by thousands of miles, both places opened the land for men to create spaces where death settled forever—devastation, repetition, dehumanized formality. No entropy was allowed on both suburbian Valparaiso(s). Doomed, recycled, it does not matter. We do not matter.
"Explore the world through the lens of Brooklyn-based Chilean documentary photographer, Javier Alvarez. Álvarez's work focuses on social themes and human relationships within marginalized groups.