Of Greek origin, the term tectonics derives from Tekton, meaning carpenter or builder. The term Tectonics was discussed at length due to the interest it aroused in the neoclassical architectural Germany of the early 19th century and the effort to better understand Greek architecture. In the last 200 years we have seen an evolution and even contradiction in the understanding of its definition.

In architecture, the word tectonics has been associated with the concepts of structure and solidity, its approach seeks to highlight the relationship between construction and morphology of architecture. Tectonics is concerned with the good use and understanding of materials, it explores the capabilities that the constructive elements give to the project to create an architecture of great honesty, without staging systems on the reality of its construction and load. Poetry and architectural psychology can in a certain way create the illusion of lightness, but always sustained by a architectural drawing ability and mastery of construction, without artifice but with the beauty that is the fruit of truth.

This exhibition seeks to understand with the help of the artists' work this notion so debated throughout time, to see in photography, video or studio models how the tectonics of the projects are shaped and expressed, in their construction, in their relationship with the landscape, with the environment, in the work of their structure with the forces that make their existence in space possible.

In keeping with the mission of the 2024 edition of PHotoEspaña, which seeks to awaken critical awareness of the true expressive and social scope of photography, this exhibition of the work of photographers, artists and architects proposes this same reflection, using to its advantage a concept of architecture and construction that has led philosophers, theorists and critics to inquire into the ability to see without artifice.

Veronica de Mello
Commissioner