Can a photo be a sculpture? Pinta BA Photo focuses on the intersection of established artists and bold projects.

Discovering the intersections of photography with other artistic practices. In its 21st edition, Pinta BA Photo continues to pursue the mission it embraced in recent years: to embrace photography as another language within contemporary art, a hybrid art with diverse and surprising trajectories . A quest that has made the leading photography fair in Latin America more inclusive .

From Friday, October 17th to Sunday, October 19th, Pavilion 8 of La Rural will host the great exponents of modern and contemporary author photography. Anatole Saderman as the 2025 Tribute Artist, the foundations Arte x Arte—with a tribute to its founder, Alfonso Castillo —and Larivière, with their publications, and a growing participation of spaces not identified with photography that propose to think beyond.

“We understand photography to be more expansive, because contemporary art works with all languages, in teams, is multidisciplinary, and broader,” says Irene Gelfman , global curator of Pinta and also curator of two special projects at BA Photo. It's no longer about thinking in disciplines like the 20th century, a perspective considered reductionist today.

There are a total of 52 galleries divided into three sections. Upon entering, two solo exhibitions of contemporary artists are a must-see in the Main Section. Cosmocosa offers a tour of the work of Nacho Iasparra , a photography purist.

Unique analog copies of series already in local museums like the Moderno and Malba, as well as his classic digital photographs. “They are what defined the image of the 2000s, the new photography that distanced itself from the more pre-produced and iconic 1990s, toward intimacy, atmosphere, sensitivity, and a greater focus on abstraction,” defines Amparo Díscoli , the gallery's co-director, who confirms that Iasparra is the only photographer on her staff.

“Photography didn't experience the price growth that was expected back in 2010, when it took off,” the gallery owner analyzes. “It's one of the luxuries of the current circuit : you have something that's part of the imagery of an era and at affordable prices.” The atmosphere around the sales is relaxed in the aisles on the first day.

At Tomás Redrado Art, a gallery with locations in Miami, and José Ignacio, making his debut at BA Photo, all are images by Flavia Da Rin . Of particular note is a series commissioned in 2008 by the Speed ​​Art Museum in Kentucky, United States, to be displayed on highway billboards, like an open-air museum. In a sort of backstage, a photo performance featuring female artists from the interwar period, always featuring their own bodies and digital montage.

Photography, a key element of an inherently ephemeral language, has historically fused with performance art , becoming one of the focal points of this edition. It's also the designated theme of the Radar section, which proposes a dialogue between two galleries. "The proposal is an intergenerational, regional, and collaborative effort with artists from different backgrounds who work in performance and photoperformance," notes Guad Creche , curator of the section, which brings together mid-range and established galleries in pairs that share a booth.

Del Infinito exhibits a 2001 photo performance by Matilde Marín that shares with Natalia Iguiñiz Boggio's performance, from the Vigil González gallery, the undeniable presence of hands.

A room in Nicola Costantino 's home was relocated to The White Lodge stand at BA Photo. Armchairs, furniture, and a selection of the artist's historic photographs, with clear references to art history, from Botticelli's Venus to Grete Stern and Magritte. Together, the objects tell her personal story , while the flower ceramics speak of the present and of an artist reinventing herself.

Photo performances from different periods by Mauro Guzman (URRA + HIP HIP), including one that simulates filming a movie, share space with one by Malena Pizani , with a series with fabrics linked to the theater (Selvanegra).

“The photographic record is present throughout the fair, as in Marina de Caro 's installation, in an effort to revisit and reunite productions from more than 20 years ago,” adds Creche, who details that the fair's productions “reflect identity and political context, as well as the connection with nature and the landscape, and something more urban-oriented.”

The urban scene is in the duo Marcela Sinclair and Marina Alessio , who share the stand at Mite and Galería Casa Proyecto, where there are “daddy issues,” as Alessio humorously comments.

Sinclair is using photographs taken by her father, a photojournalist, at a 1968 industry fair right there in La Rural. Alessio, meanwhile, is bringing a portion of his SADAIC exhibition, on view until October 31 at the venue at Florida 910 1B in downtown, named after the sole inheritance the artist received from her musician father.

Nature manifests itself in all its splendor in the retrospective of American artist and biologist Donna Conlon , Fragile Shelters, the subject of the Video Project. With a career spanning 18 years and a work in the Malba Collection, Conlon uses extremely high-resolution images of tiny, unnoticed scenes of ants carrying mini-dollars out of an anthill, and of the exact moment a hummingbird takes flight, filmed at 1,500 frames per second. A resident of Panama for 30 years, the artist participates in the auditorium's program.

Curated by Irene Gelfman –like the Video Project– the Special Project presents Binarios lenguaje secreto (Secret Language Binaries) , an installation by Marina de Caro , who, recently arrived from Paris, was in the space, with the support of the Ruth Benzacar gallery.

“I dedicated myself to fashion and participated in the first Young Art biennials, where they called me to do fashion shows, and instead of organizing one with clothes, I made a skin with the idea of ​​design,” she says. In addition to the complete series—black and white, body-hugging textiles with knitwear, lines, contrast, and camouflage as their main elements—the show included music with poetic and theoretical texts about fashion : the social body, the geometry of the sensible, and abstraction. “The show never happened, and I kept everything.”

Later, in Marcos López 's studio, he took the period photographs on display here, along with the textiles in glass cases and some giant photographs he recreated in 2023 when he thought he had lost the negatives. "But the bodies are different."

The lively corridor of the NEXT. Out of Focus section, titled Aquí, siempre y nunca (Here, Always and Never ), brings together new, self-managed, federal, and more daring projects . “We envision it as a breeding ground for artists and galleries: a platform for Latin American art to help the scene grow,” Gelfman explains. Some of the galleries that have participated in this section, now in its 11th year at BA Photo, have already participated in the main sections of international fairs.

Curated by Joaquín Rodríguez and guest-curated by Carlos Gutiérrez , the section brings together galleries subsidized by Banco Hipotecario, the event's main sponsor, which awarded a scholarship to one of them, Rusia, from Tucumán. Additionally, eight galleries at the fair offer up to 15 installments for the purchase of works with this card.

“This year, the list of projects and artists has expanded, with a more broad and united perspective,” Joaquín Rodríguez confirmed at the opening. In many cases, he added, “photography is not the goal but rather a path we travel, closely linked to the territory, nature, and more personal experiences.”

Facing each other at two stands, two perspectives on the male body. From Russia, a look at the man Gustavo Nieto and Sol Marinozzi with their series About that Time (2022).

Intemperie is a nomadic project that organizes exhibitions in different spaces. Gonzalo Maggi , who spends half his time in London and half his time in Buenos Aires, called the exhibition at his booth Pasado mañana (Past Tomorrow), inspired by a series by Manuel Fernández (from the Quimera gallery), who uses collage with a metaphorical meaning. There are works by Maggi and Daniel Limossi, with a series created in India, near the Himalayas.

From San Nicolás, in Almacén de arte, two artists from different generations are connected by analog photography: María Paz Secundini's landscapes and Santiago Estellano 's photographs of the territory, intervened with an imperceptible depth and bold phrases.

In the space Departamento 112, in Martínez, is the work of Sara Escalante , a young artist born in 2001, who takes photography to the next level with a device that forcefully answers the question of whether a photograph can be a sculpture.

In Rafaela, Santa Fe, Sofía Desuque takes her landscape photograph to a billboard, which she then transforms into recycled paper. The project "Archive in Transit" includes not only the site-specific installation but also the recycled paper fragments, which are for sale as standalone works.

At Gabelich Contemporáneo, Lisandro Arévalo develops a playful project with photographs of lime-painted stained-glass windows and the irresistible temptation to leave a mark, which has become a collective slogan sweeping Latin America. These projects renew the question: What is photography about?

Pinta BA Photo 2025. Pavilion 8, La Rural, Av. Sarmiento 2704. Friday the 17th and Saturday the 18th from 2:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Sunday the 19th until 8:00 p.m. Tickets: $7,000.

With admission to Pinta BAphoto, you can visit the Prix Pictet exhibition at the Proa Foundation, as well as the Lariviere Foundation exhibitions, free of charge.

Sunday, October 19th 2 for 1 (only at the physical box office and for children under 18).