The city of Barcelona became the epicentre of artistic creativity and international culture last Thursday with the opening of the exhibition Unveiling Imagination by Chilean photographer Paz Carrillo.
The show, of 22 photographs exhibited at Galería Base Elements, features hyperrealist artist Guillermo Lorca, and his collection Esplendor de la noche, exhibited at MOCO, offering a glimpse into the artist’s intimate worlds.
Paz Carrillo and Guillermo Lorca during the opening at Base Elements Gallery.
Through photography, Paz Carrillo has embarked on a reinterpretation of Guillermo’s thoughts and feelings. Each work has its own context, and it is up to the public to intuit in a personal way what each portrait speaks of.
The art of portraiture to explore the inner world
As Paz Carrillo told us on the opening day, this is her first international portrait exhibition, focusing on her friend Guillermo Lorca. But some time ago, in her homeland, she already made her first portraits of a Chilean milliner. “The milliner designs beautiful hats, which are out of the ordinary, but it was a small-scale exhibition.
Casa Batlló, MACBA and MOCO are emblematic spaces of Barcelona that appear in Paz Carrillo’s collection.
Paz’s meticulous approach as a psychologist and photographer has allowed her to transcend superficiality and immerse herself in Guillermo’s inner world. The photographer confesses that psychology allows her to open the minds of others and put into words what others can only intuit. To get to see what they hide in their minds, she prefers to get to know them quietly, get close to them and make them feel comfortable.
For me, the first thing is to interview the person, talk and get to know their art, and then connect with what inspires me and express it visually,” says Paz Carrillo.
Paz and Guillermo met in Chile through mutual friends, but it wasn’t until they met a year ago in Barcelona that the project began. The photographer usually works portraying big fashion brands such as Converse or Fila, but what she enjoys most are the portraits, because “through them I explain real stories”.
An artist who unites realism and fiction
The series of photographs shows Guillermo inside his own paintings, playing with fiction and realism, with darkness and light.
Guillermo Lorca photographed by Paz Carrillo in one of his paintings.
Guillermo is used to playing with these approaches, always looking for the night to create. His collection Splendour of the Night came to MOCO Barcelona to inaugurate its opening in 2021, with some of the paintings being permanent. Next year, London will host a new home for the museum and they are trying to choose which works will stay in Barcelona and which will go to England.
Giant animals and fairytale creatures make up Guillermo Lorca’s world. In this image we see him posing in front of Paz Carrillo’s camera.
Through each work, different independent stories can be extracted, but each of them always have points that connect with each other. The female figures, adults and children, and the presence of animals play an important role. Guillermo tells us that when he creates, he is driven by sentimental impulses, and the right characters appear naturally. The exhibition has sparked great interest in the artistic community, and brought together a multitude of artists, influencers, collectors and art lovers. Among the most well-known guests were names such as Ferico Kampf, Juliana Plexxo, Ivana Flores or Alexia Rros, among others.
Paz Carrillo has a personal working technique that allows her to capture images as if they were painted, when in fact they are captured by a camera.
The exhibition Unveiling Imagination will be available in Barcelona for a week, with a very extensive calendar, as it will cross borders in the coming weeks. From 28 November, the exhibition will be shown at the Centro Gabriela Mistral in Santiago de Chile, before moving on to other cities.
BASE ELEMENTS GALLERY
Carrer del Palau 4 (Barrio Gótico)
08002 Barcelona, Spain
Images courtesy of the brands mentioned.
