Center del Carme Cultura Contemporània (CCCC) presents a robust photography program featuring three solo exhibitions by frontline professionals: Christina de Middel, Ricardo Cases, and Miguel Trillo.
The director of the Consortium of Museums and CCCC, José Luis Pérez Pont, unveiled three proposals in theCarlos Pérez Room; Miguel Trillo’s work occupies room 1 with Asian Quarter; Ricardo Cases presents Parter’s Ficus. The presentation was accompanied by the three artists and the curators who assembled the samples. The exhibitions run through 18 June and are produced by the Consortium.
In 2023, the Center del Carme commits to Valencian art by producing exhibitions that bring forward artists who were born or established in Alicante, Valencia, or Castellón. Cristina de Middel and Ricardo Cases are part of a trio that includes Miguel Trillo from Cádiz. Together, they shape a contemporary portrait of photography that captures youth, art, and daily life through personal visions. This perspective reflects the Center del Carme program’s leadership in presenting meaningful work from regional creators in Valencia and beyond.
Cristina de Middel: dismantling the traditional narrative
Alicante-based Cristina de Middel heads the renowned Magnum agency and was honored with the National Photography Award in 2017. Her work challenges conventional modes of presentation by breaking the expectations of uniqueness, order, and display that often define art-gallery presentations. In the exhibition’s opening segment, curated by Raphael Doctor, the visuals form a large mural that acts as a sprawling study cabinet, uniting the whole and the particular in a single immersive experience. In the final hall, the Center del Carme presents a new series by de Middel, Gentlemen’s Club, which scrutinizes female prostitution through diverse global contexts.
et cetera! marks a fresh direction in de Middel’s ongoing critical practice, which began in Madrid in 2017 and continued through projects in 2019 and 2021. The artist’s approach to constructing reality through photography continues to probe how truth and representation intersect in today’s world.
Saying about this exhibition, the artist expressed pride in displaying work in a space like Center del Carme and joy in returning to Valencia, a city where she studied. The experience begins in a vast, open room and unfolds into new narrative layers that invite visitors to confront established storytelling through visual means.
Asian youth according to Miguel Trillo
Miguel Trillo’s project Asian Quarter is presented in Valencia after premiering with the Las Cigarreras Cultural Centre. The showcase surveys the 21st century in Asia through the lens of one photographer who has long explored youth and street life. The exhibition invites the public to reflect on how urban culture is evolving in a connected world.
Curated by Sema D’Acosta, the collection brings together portraits of young people walking through streets in various Asian cities, from Oceania to the Persian Gulf. It documents the dawn of a new urban culture whose aesthetics are increasingly shaped by digital connectivity, social media, and smart devices.
Asian Quarter is a visual panorama of youth culture, spanning Japanese and South Korean influences to broader Asian contexts. This ongoing exploration continues Trillo’s commitment to capturing the energy and rhythms of street life, a movement that traces back to the Madrid movement in the early 1980s and reflects his admiration for contemporary steps in these cities. The exhibition space at CCCC serves as a modern setting for these ideas, enhanced by Valencia’s dynamic audience and the energy of a city known for embracing new artistic programming.
Ficus del Parterre according to Ricardo Cases
Ricardo Cases’ Parter’s Ficus presents a decade-long photographic exploration of the Levant’s landscapes, from coastal to rural settings. In 2018, Cases began a focused photography project centered on Valencia, inviting viewers to see the city through an artist’s eye. The subsequent series, Parter’s Ficus, reveals places and motifs that arise as brief moments of disruption or local clichés, recontextualized through careful observation.
The exhibition, curated by Paul Brezo, juxtaposes the city’s oldest and grandest tree with a nearby gas station, a tension that underlines the willingness to question established norms in visual storytelling. These works are woven into Ricardo Cases’ broader practice, illustrating a sustained interest in telling stories through the camera’s lens and redefining how places are perceived on screen.
“With Parter’s Ficus, a photography project rooted in Valencia, the show holds particular relevance because it resonates with the everyday lives of the audience and their familiar surroundings,” notes the curator. The work invites viewers to recognize their own environments as subjects worthy of thoughtful photographic representation, encouraging a dialogue between art and daily life. — Attribution: Consorci de Museus