The exhibition Miradas al Puerto is the result of a photography workshop led by José Manuel Ballester in collaboration with the Gijón Port Authority. Kela Coto, Leonor Escanciano, Adolfo Fernández, Julio Jiménez Corral and Carlos Suárez, the participants selected for the workshop, spent three intensive days studying theory and practising with Ballester. Throughout these sessions, the Port of El Musel took centre stage, with the image serving as an artistic language.
The breakwaters and jetties, the quays and the movement of ships, the cranes and the ore conveyor belts, the mountains of coal and the vegetation making its way through, the cruise ship traffic and the boundlessness of the Cantabrian Sea… Common motifs that come to life from different perspectives. Going beyond a mere documentary record, the selection of photographs showcases each participant’s personal approach, where framing, composition and the capture of the moment at different times of day transform the port area into a setting of infinite expressive possibilities for analysing space, architecture and light.
In Miradas al Puerto, El Musel is portrayed not merely as infrastructure, but as a living, ever-changing place, shown in all its aesthetic complexity through a selection of images that invite the viewer to explore it – from sweeping panoramic and architectural views, through the details of the texture of concrete or rusted metal, to the serenity of the maritime horizon. In this way, the harbour landscape is revealed to the viewer through a multitude of previously unseen perspectives.