Zara tries photography? Irving Penn, presented by Inditex
Photographer Irving Penn has landed in A Coruña. Discovering the MOP Exhibition educated me on Penn's life - but also the kingdom of Inditex.
Last weekend I visited the Irving Penn Centennial exhibition at MOP here in A Coruña. Founded by Marta Ortega Pérez, the MOP Foundation’s aesthetics were distinctly Inditex. The photography exhibition is housed in a grey concrete block situated on the A Coruña port.
I collected a gallery handout leaflet and some postcards, both exhibiting a Zara aesthetic that felt only natural for this Inditex city.
Once you’ve entered the building and handed your damp coat to the cloakroom attendants, you can drift into a vast room with screens on every wall. Here Irving Penn’s life is presented by people who knew and worked with him. It’s a great introduction to the photographer if you’re like me and had no prior knowledge of his life.
This 5-10 minute long docu-video was a really standout part of the exhibition for me. It was the ideal immersive experience for visitors, throwing them into the story of Penn within minutes of their arrival.
The main gallery features Irving Penn’s photographical works, from Vogue covers to of-their-era ethnographical portraits.
I found the gallery’s commentary on the colonialist aesthetic of his African projects to be very important, and I’m glad they brought the colonial discussion to the forefront. The texts that accompany sections of his work are an essential read when you visit this gallery.
The floral still lifes at MOP instantly stood out to me. I wondered why the photographer chose to capture these flowers in their slightly wilted state, less vibrant and blooming than we prefer to view them.
This interest in the temporal nature of life reminded me of another exhibition I have visited here in Coruña - Nick Knight’s Roses From My Garden at Fundación Barrié. Using AI and photoshop, this artist constructs and reconstructs images of flowers. He too chose flowers that were wilting, photographing them as they die.
The exhibition at MOP highlights Irving Penn’s attention to the structural form of flowers. As with his other works of photography he prioritises stark and stand-out lines and forms, high contrast images, and sharply structured poses.
The Foundation didn’t stop at creating a smoothly curated visitor experience in its gallery. The Bookstore is an artistic experience in itself, the cylindrical room piled high with spirals of design, photography, and art guidebooks and portfolios. It’s a dream for anyone interested in the artistic world.
The sleek industrial style of the Bookstore and cafe again has Inditex written all over it. Having lived in Coruña for a few months, I’ve grown accustomed to this aesthetic, noticing stylish people and new fashions in the streets that can only come from the employees of possibly Europe’s biggest style company.
I highly recommend a visit to this exhibition if you’re a Galicia local or find yourself stopping in A Coruña. It’s running until May, so there’s still plenty of time to drift around the gallery, browse books in the shop, and sit for a coffee overlooking the port. Even on an extremely grey and wet day it was well worth travelling across town to see.