The Magnum agency has won the Princess of Asturias Award for Concord, but it could have received the Communication and Humanities Award, which was won by the Iranian cartoonist and painter Marjane Satrapi, or the Arts Award, which Serrat received. This is what it means to be a historical photography agency like the one founded in the mid-20th century by some of the greats in the discipline, Cartier-Bresson and Capa, which also reports on an event that seeks social awareness through their testimonies, and both things, in addition, thanks to some of the most memorable images in History, authentic works of art, museum pieces. At its headquarters in Paris, they are hoarded, and a minimal selection has arrived at the so-called Oviedo Weapons Factory by its current president, the Spanish Cristina de Middel, who has set her goal on rescuing some of the most emblematic and curious photos that are kept there about Spain. Hence, the title, ‘Spain x Magnum’. Cristina de Middel, who is also a photographer, has a very personal, as well as committed, vision of reality, and this very special point is distinguished in the journey from the very beginning. Trufado de topicsazosMapping through the agency’s funds In search of the identity of Spain lost there, according to Cristina de Middel, an image emerged filled with cliches as true as (our) life itself. In the lenses, not at all deforming, of many of the photographers who have trod our bull’s skin, a lot of black, a lot of religion, blood and violence in abundance (war, bulls…), a lot of tricorn (open the exhibition a montage with a mythical image of civil guards by Eugene Smith) and a lot of kitsch to compensate in this very chickpea stew. It doesn’t hurt to confess it to Cristina de Middel, but, of course, she has turned the potato omelette upside down and added a lot of onion, as it should be. And get out. It has divided the map of Spain not by regions (communities) but by suggestive ideas that range from how women or motherhood or men have been seen or that red color that is so ours (from the cape to the balaclava that covered the faces of the ETA terrorists) or to the sacrosanct religion or to the beaches and beachgoers… Spain x Magnum Colectiva. La Vega Weapons Factory. Oviedo. C/ Marcelino Fernández, s/n. Commissioner: Cristina de Middel. 5 starsDe Middel passed the cotton of truth through the Magnum funds and dust and a dusty reality came out, but his way of exposing it plays with contrast by placing a photo signed by Martin Parr of a tray – one of those found in the self-service from a tourist hotel – full of chorizo, salchichón and a bad ham along with another from a pro-Franco demonstration. What would become of us if Martin Parr had not had his eye on us, or Lua Ribeira, or De Middel herself? That we would continue to fade into (and) black.
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