Fotonoviembre Biennial Opens in Tenerife Exploring "The Vertigo of Images"
The 18th Fotonoviembre International Photography Biennial, themed "The Vertigo of Images," launched in Tenerife featuring over a hundred artists across numerous exhibitions and venues, exploring photography's role in an image-saturated world.
TEA Tenerife Space of the Arts launched the 18th Fotonoviembre International Photography Biennial this Thursday. The event was presented by José Carlos Acha, Minister of Culture and Museums of the Cabildo de Tenerife, along with Sergio Rubira, artistic director of TEA, and curators Marta Dahó Masdemont and Dalia de la Rosa. The biennial opens today, Friday, at 7:00 PM at TEA and will run in part until February 2026.
Fotonoviembre will feature the work of over a hundred artists across roughly twenty exhibitions in 18 locations and galleries spanning six municipalities in Tenerife. Under the theme "El vértigo de las imágenes" (The Vertigo of Images), the biennial offers not only exhibitions but also talks, artist discussions, performances, and workshops.
Besides the exhibition at TEA, titled "El vértigo de las imágenes" and running until February 22nd, the biennial includes sections named "Artistas en Selección" (Artists in Selection), "Atlántica Colectivas" (Atlantic Collectives), "Focus," and a public program.
The core idea behind "El vértigo de las imágenes," which showcases 36 artists, is to explore how we can continue to think about photography in a world flooded with images and increasingly standardized visual content, and in an era where artificial intelligence is rapidly changing our reality.
"Artistas en Selección" is designed as a conversation between the selected artworks and the spaces they inhabit. This section highlights artists who use photography, video art, and photographic installations in their work.
The "Atlántica Colectivas" exhibitions are based on the idea that every action, image, or practice leaves a mark, affecting space, energy, bodies, objects, and environments.
These exhibitions branch out in two directions. "Actos que pesan" (Acts that Weigh) examines how artworks reflect specific situations with social, historical, and ecological consequences. "El espesor" (The Thickness) views the image as a surface where memories and conflicts are layered. Both of these explore themes of landscape, territory, resource extraction, tourism, colonialism, and environmental crises.
The "Focus" section comprises 13 exhibitions. The Fotonoviembre public program includes a series of talks and discussions titled "El trabajo de las imágenes. Prácticas y desplazamientos" (The Work of Images. Practices and Displacements).
In addition to TEA, the biennial is being held at various venues in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, including the Municipal Museum of Fine Arts, the Contemporary Art Hall, Agüita Arte Contemporáneo, Galería Bibli, Galería Leyendecker, and the García Sanabria Park Art Hall. In La Laguna, exhibitions can be found at the Mapfre Canarias Foundation, the Art Hall of the Canarias Cabrera Pinto Institute, the El Sauce exhibition hall, the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of La Laguna (ULL), the Museum of History and Anthropology of Tenerife, Galería Artizar, and the ULL Cultural Hall of Photography.
Fotonoviembre also extends to Los Realejos at the House of Culture, La Orotava at Casa Doña Chana, Puerto de la Cruz at the Eduardo Westerdahl Museum of Contemporary Art, and Granadilla de Abona at the San Isidro Cultural Center. One exhibition will be presented in January at the Mapfre Canarias Foundation headquarters in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.