The bestseller in photobooks, Cristina de Middel (Alicante, 1975), has presented this morning at the Museo Universidad de Navarra her latest artistic project "Man Jayen", produced by the museum itself and curated by Valentín Vallhonrat and Rafael Levenfeld, members of the committee Art Direction. The result of this work consists of a publication edited by Trama publishing house and a exhibition that will be exhibited in the tower of the building until March 13, 2016. After the opening, Cristina de Middel will continue to collaborate with the Museum through the curatorial program "Tender Bridges".

"Man Jayen" is born after the invitation that the Archive of the Modern Conflict (AMC) -an organization and house publishing house based in London, Toronto and Beijing- makes to Cristina de Middel to develop a project related to her file, a private collection composed of unique images never published, which are located in the "outskirts" of photography. The story of the failure of an expedition that wanted to reach and scientifically "rediscover" Jan Mayen Island, located between Greenland and Iceland, in 1911, and that despite not achieving this goal, they decide to immortalize a fake landing on an Icelandic island recorded on video, aroused the interest of Cristina de Middel.

The artist received a trunk with the material of the academic committee (photographs, invoices and the captain's diary, among other things) and with a Super 8 camera began recording the video that was never found among the belongings of the members of the expedition. "It was a challenge try fill in and build this story to find the true value of photography," acknowledged Cristina de Middel.

In "Man Jayen", the artist satirizes the nonsense of the expedition through video and photographs taken on Skye Island, Scotland, very similar to Jan Mayen, following the staging described in detail in the captain's diary. "I mix the original documentation with the new one I have created to tell my version of events and give food for thought about who writes the story and with what language. With this, I want to warn the public to be careful with the official versions," explained the artist. This is precisely one of her goals, to awaken the discussion about the representations of truth through her images. Her photography lacks rules and aims to make the visitor reflect and consider the limits that exist between reality and fiction. "I want people to have a good time with my work and have as much fun as I do," Cristina de Middel confessed.

The sample is composed of an installation articulated by the deployment on the wall of a series of images on BlueBack printed paper, 1.50 meters high, on which, at the same time, 31 framed photographs, digitally printed on cotton paper, are placed. "I wanted the project to be in color but from 1911, something totally impossible, since color photography did not exist then. So I mixed the two files with an equal aging treatment. I made analog copies of the files I wanted to highlight. They are the ones that are framed and painted with ink that was used in China in the 1930s," said De Middel. Likewise, two showcases include original objects from the expedition, such as a diary with correspondence staff, and other pieces created by Cristina de Middel, such as the expedition's flag.

The 102-page publication published by Trama publishing house is priced at €22 per copy. It will be available in the store and on the websites of the Museum and Trama publishing house. "The photobook format is the perfect platform for my photographs. I financial aid to sequence and order the story I want to convey to the public. In this case, the exhibition takes it a step further. The translation from book to wall is very important," said De Middel.

The artist from Alicante worked for almost 10 years as a photojournalist for the Spanish press, as well as for different NGOs. Disenchanted with this official document, which she says "does not reflect a raw truth" and provokes the shaping of public opinion through the media, De Middel went on to develop more personal projects. "I began to play with photography by inverting the logic of things to get fully into that gray area that limits truth with fiction. This field is what really amuses me," De Middel confessed.

The photographic series The Afronauts, which he made in 2013, was a phenomenon as a photographic publication, seducing even Martin Parr, prestigious British photographer of the Magnum Agency and great guru of the photobook. This self-publication about Zambia's space program follows a fictional representation of real events in which he tackles space-age themes and folk art aesthetics to critique the Western media's stigmatization of Africa. "It was about showing how in Europe Africa is consumed and the stereotypes that reach us here," the artist explained. This work was awarded the Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography for the best publication of 2013.

He has exhibited other projects at Les Rencontres de la Photographie d'Arles, PHotoEspaña; Festival Images, Vevey (Switzerland); The Photographer's Gallery; La New Gallery, Madrid; Kursala, University of Cadiz; Festival Paraty, Brazil; Dillon Gallery, New York; Foam Museum, Amsterdam; Parati em Foco, Brazil; Lagos Photo Festival, Nigeria; Deustche Börse Photography Prize, London; Deustche Börse HQ, Frankfurt; Photo Ireland; Reggio Emilia European Photography Festival, Italy; Galería project Arte, Madrid; Obra Social Caixa Galicia La Coruña; Kulunguelé; Forum Fnac Alicante; Fnac Madrid Sur; and Fnac Diagonal de Barcelona.

His work has been published in the monographic books Vida y milagros de Paula P. ( 2009, Museo de la Universidad de Alicante, Alicante); The Afronauts (2012, self-published, London); SPBH Book Club Vol III (2013, self-published, by Happy, London) and Party: Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (2013, RM and Archive of Modern Conflict, Madrid and London), among others.
 

 

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