Extremamour
by
PATRICE SCHREYER
with poems by
ATLVARO VALVERDE
From March 24 to April 23, 2023
Placencia, Extremadura
Sala Hebraica
"Las Claras" Cultural Center
C/ Santa Clara, 2
Curator: Jorge Cañete
A spot rodeado de paredes de piedra,
at the sombra liviana de los recios olivos,
con túmulos dispuestos in a wobbly con vistas
has a landscape that evokes el infinito.
A place surrounded by stone walls,
in the ethereal shade of robust olive trees,
with tumuli laid out in a terrace giving
on a landscape that evokes infinity.
Alvaro valverde
Extremamour, an exhibition of photographs and poems dedicated to Extremadura
The Swiss photographerPATRICE SCHREYERhad carte blanche to photograph Extremadura subjectively. His gaze never seeks the obvious, but aims to be a visual and personal love letter to the lands of Estrémègne.
The title of the exhibition,Extremamour, is moreover a play on words betweenExtremadura(Extremadura, in Spanish) and love.
After a residency in Trujillo between December 2021 and January 2022, the photographer traveled through this little-known province which nevertheless contains an immense heritage that very few regions in Europe can boast of possessing.
The photos of the artist from Neuchâtel bear witness to his rich history, which combines the ghosts of Charles V, the conquistadors, the shadow of Renaissance towns and the immensity of still preserved landscapes.
PATRICE SCHREYERhas been a photographer for over twenty years. It was during his excursions in the Swiss mountains that he discovered a passion for the 8th art.
His artistic approach is sometimes close to abstraction, strongly expressive and contrasting, often dark. Patrice Schreyer mixes natural landscapes and “inner landscapes”. Wherever he goes, he always tries to share his personal universe with a rare sensitivity. His work combines a strong aestheticism with an elegance rooted in the sobriety of chiaroscuro.
The strength of the images ofPATRICE SCHREYERlies in their ability to highlight the essence of landscapes in a very readable way, down to the smallest detail. This attention to detail gives the artist's images a strong coherence.
Numerous exhibitions in Switzerland have presented his work and his photographs decorate the Swiss embassies in Tunis and Paris.
ÁLVARO VALVERDE, an accomplice poet
Jorge Cañete asked the Estrémègne poet ÁLVARO VALVERDE for a selection of his poems to accompany the scenography of the exhibitionExtremamour. In addition to this selection, the poet also insisted on writing specially unpublished poems to accompany each photograph.
ÁLVARO VALVERDE was born in Plasencia, Extremadura. His poems have been translated into several languages and his name appears in the most prestigious anthologies of contemporary Spanish poetry. He is the author, among others, of the collections Una oculta razón (Loewe Prize, 1991), Más allá, Tánger (2014) andEl cuarto del siroco (2018).
His first novel, Las murallas del mundo, was also a finalist for the Café Gijón prize, as well as the Extremadura prize for the creation of the best literary work.
