The Sunlight Hours exhibition by Bleda and Rosa, winners of Spain’s National Photography Award in 2008, has been launched today and will be open to the public until September 7^th in Madrid’s Campo del Moro gardens, the Royal Collections Gallery and this museum’s Immersive Cube space.  

The exhibition involves an artistic reflection on the sun as a symbol of time, life and history, captured in images taken at the Yuste Monastery in Caceres, the last retreat of Emperor Charles V. 

María Bleda and José María Rosa look at the natural environment of Yuste through the lens of three of Charles V’s main interests: astronomy, botany and mechanical devices.  

The images are exhibited in various formats in three spaces: the Campo del Moro gardens, the Royal Collections Gallery’s ramp and the museum’s Immersive Cube. In this way, the museographic arrangement leads to the leisurely viewing of the photos first, which contrasts with the 8-minute immersive audiovisual experience in the Immersive Cube.   

After its display in Madrid, the exhibition will be moved to the Yuste Monastery in mid-September, so that the photographs can be contemplated in the atmosphere in which they were conceived. 

At today’s opening ceremony, the artists explained that the project “establishes an analogy between the solar cycle and the life cycle of nature and man, evoking a time when the sun was a guide, a measuring device and a symbol. It marked the hours, daytime, nighttime, the seasons and the passing of time.” 

The event was also attended by Ana de la Cueva, chairwoman of Spain’s National Heritage agency; María Santoyo, director of PHotoESPAÑA; and Joaquín Mollinedo, ACCIONA’s chief officer for Institutional Relations, Communications and Branding, who all agreed on the value of art as a driver of public awareness.   

COLLABORATION 

This exhibition is part of the three-year Fieldnotes project, in which ACCIONA, PHotoESPAÑA and Spain’s National Heritage agency collaborate to get major national photographers to highlight the natural heritage of the country’s Royal Sites. 

Last year, Fieldnotes featured Javier Vallhonrat, who focused his gaze on “water in the Royal Palace of La Granja,” with a visual reflection on the intersection between nature and human inventiveness, as represented in the iconic ornamental fountains of the palace.  

PHotoESPAÑA, Spain’s National Heritage agency and ACCIONA also collaborated in 2022, when they jointly promoted an exhibition by the late Sebastião Salgado, which was displayed at the Royal Palace in Madrid.  

ACCIONA and PHotoESPAÑA have continued their partnership since 2017, under the premise of jointly drawing attention to an artistic look at human impact on the environment.    

PHotoESPAÑA is a photography festival that has been held annually in Madrid since 1998 and has set an international benchmark in the visual arts, thanks to the quality of its artworks and artists on display in the official section, as well as for the cultural initiatives it promotes to disseminate the cultural and aesthetic value of photography in society.