Premio Combat Prize

Adrià Goula Sardà (Barcelona 1973) is an architect who since 2005 has been actively practicing professional architectural photography. Goula carries out commissions for renowned architects and various public and private institutions on a local and International level. His work has been published in various magazines and in various monographic publications. He has been a professor at the Sert School in 2010, 2011 and 2012, and an invited lecturer in different conferences, courses and workshops.
In parallel to his commercial work, Goula develops personal projects that have been featured in París (Galerie Salon de Thorigny), Burdeos (Atélier Dartois) and Barcelona (Kowasa Gallery, Col.legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya y Col.legi d’Enginyers de Catalunya). His monograph De-Construcción was published in December 2011 by the Fundación Esteyco. He has been among the finalists of the AENA 2012 photography contest, and selected to participate in ”Descubrimientos” of PhotoEspaña 2012 and in the ”Full Contact” of the Scan Festival of Tarragona.
The series “Compressions” brings together animals ran over on various roads in Catalonia and the United States by depositing them on a white background. Photographs here are zenithal without any direct light.
In photography, we are constantly shifting from tridimensional reality to two-dimensional shots without being aware of the geometric awareness this presupposes. We form part of a photographically overwhelmed society; we view the world directly through the “photographic window”, without the slightest awareness of the visual collage inherent in this two-dimensional frame. Ran over animals undergo a similar process, but here, contrary to the previous case, the signs of the violence inherent in this process are rendered visible.
Like in a Cubist photograph, the parts of the animal’s body are distributed within the frame in a novel way: Their spatial relation is redefined though a series of elements that allow us nevertheless to sense the original volumetric form. The result is a set of complex geometries and textures on a white background alluding to a not immediately definable structure. A striking vibration between the abstract and the figurative form of the image is produced.