Ashimoto  (2007 - 2013)

I follow your imperfect steps, your fragile beauty, almost brittle. Glimmers of intimacy in the big city. Around your feet...

 

Ashimoto: Japanese polysemic term that, among other meanings, means "around the feet". It is an intentionally ambiguous title that –as if it were one another work of the project– allows multiple interpretations; as many as spectators come to the work, as many as the city where these photographs are taken: Tokyo.

The Ashimoto series explores concepts such as intimacy or silence in the great Japanese city, through unusual images, as these photographs of women feet and legs captured in public spaces. Photographs that suggest much more than what they show, and show just what is necessary to be able to complete them with the imagination. A feature that connects them even more with the Japanese culture; in which, what is not seen or not said is usually more important than what is shown or expressed. "Ashimoto" also invites to question the act of portraying, by leaving the face out of the frame, and focusing attention on a part of the body or its gestures, which can provide the same information –or perhaps more– about the "portrayed" person.

All the works of this project are the result of casual encounters through the streets of Tokyo. A mix between found photographs and consent photographs –no scene was prepared or constructed–, being chance, intuition and respect the only valid guide for its creation. The express combination of photographs (in color or in black and white, static or in motion) is a representation of the infinite layers that interact and coexist in the Japanese megalopolis; of its motley, fragile and complex harmony.











 



 

































 




















 



 









 










 

 

 

PRESS  (SELECTION)
 
LENS CULTURE  |  featured article |  29.05. 2015 |  < fullscren >
 
 
 
TIME OUT TOKYO  |  JAPAN  |  interview  |  13.11. 2013  |  <fullscreen>
 
 
 
BONART  |  Nº 104  |  review |  JUNE 2008  |  <fullscreen>
 
CÉSAR ORDÓÑEZ OR THE INTUITED FORM

To designate the reality, Buddhism uses the word Sunya, which means empty. It is also the name given to the number zero. The observer fills the reality that without their presence would be empty, in the same way that the mathematician can’t work without a number: the zero, a kind of antithesis of a number. The photographer César Ordóñez proposes us an approach to Japanese reality from ashimoto term, which could translate as a part of a foot of a woman who is intuited through the folds of a kimono. But in fact ashimoto is a polysemic concept. It can also refer to the foot, or to a part of the foot. As the same way, the images that shows this artist has many connotations: suggest more than they show, and show just what we need to get an idea of where they come from and where are going the photographed subjects.

Based on the concept of stolen photography and after a meticulous work in Japan in recent years, César Ordóñez get different things. First, create a clear and distinguishable style, and second, to have a discourse that tells us something new, and ultimately, explains a story. We are used that photographers who got their own style. Indeed, this is one of the goals pursued by most schools of photography. Unfortunately the own style, as an ultimate and unique goal, it remains a kind of Sunya, a kind of vacuum, which only the artist can fill with a creative discourse.

Màrius Domingo
 
 
PRESÈNCIA  (EL PUNT) |  review  |  30.03.2008  | <fullscreen>
 
SENSUALITIES

The sensuality cannot plot, and this is why the bombardment of advertising images that haunts us daily leaves us more and more indifferent. César Ordóñez went to Tokyo in the hope of capturing a real and natural eroticism. Serene and intimate. Authentic. The series of photographs in black and white and colour, are like a box of sensuality pills. In that images appears women's feet, shod feet and decorated with elegance and fantasy, without falling into the exuberance. Evoking an unsophisticated glamour, a tender and mysterious beauty, next and inaccessible at the same time. There are stolen photographs, but also, many allowed photographs. The authenticity is imposed: each foot has the value also for its imperfections.

María Palau
 

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ASHIMOTO in solo exhibitions

2018   TOKYO ÍNTIM,  Galeria Agüí, Andorra la Vella (ANDORRA)   
2017   TOKYO ÍNTIMO,  LPBC, Barcelona (SPAIN)                                        
2012   TOKYO ÍNTIMO,  Patricia Conde Galería, Mexico DF (MEXICO)                                       
2011   ASHIMOTO,  Galeria Mediadvanced, Gijón (SPAIN)   
2008   ASHIMOTO,  Festival Emergent 08, Lleida (SPAIN)   
2008   ASHIMOTO,  Festival SCAN 08, Tarragona (SPAIN)   
2008   ASHIMOTO,  Galería H2O, Barcelona (SPAIN)   

ASHIMOTO in group exhibitions

2018   Tokyo Curiosity, 4th City Hall in Le Marais, Paris (FRANCE)
2018   Shibuya - Tokyo  Curiosity, Tokyo-Ga 2018-2020, Hikarie, Tokyo (JAPAN)
2016   Maridajes XVIII: Tipologías, Foto Colectania, Bodegas Roda, La Rioja (SPAIN)   
2013   Tokyo-Ga 4 forest among us,  Gakushuin University, Tokyo (JAPAN)
2013   Tres projectes. Fotografia,  Galeria Atelier, Barcelona (SPAIN)   
2011   Saint Petersburg Photo Vernissage 2011,  Central Exhibition Hall “Manege”, St. Petersburg (RUSSIA)
2011   Difracción,  Patricia Conde Galería, Mexico DF (MÉXICO)

ASHIMOTO in fairs

2018   Fotofever,  Fiftydots Gallery, Paris (FRANCE) - Ashimoto, official image of the fair
2018   MIA Photo Fair,  Fiftydots Gallery, Milan (ITALY)

ASHIMOTO in collections

AUER PHOTO FOUNDATION, Geneva (Switzerland)
FUNDACIÓ FOTO COLECTANIA,  Barcelona (Spain)

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TOKYO INTIMO | Patricia Conde Galería, México DF | 14.3.2012 - 11.4.2012