Cataratas
18 Sep - 15 Nov 2025
In Cataratas, Cristina de Middel offers a critical reflection on the way we see—or believe we see—the world, particularly in relation to Africa. A waterfall clouds our vision, blurs the contours and turns looking into an uncertain act. In a present saturated with images, where photography has lost its aura of truth to navigate between overexposure and suspicion, de Middel chooses to embrace blurring as part of the creative process.
The exhibition is structured around a selection of works from several of the artist’s iconic series—The Afronauts, Midnight at the Crossroads, Funmilayo, Mirador, and This is What Hatred Did—which challenge colonial imaginaries, dominant media narratives, and the stereotypes that have historically constrained the representation of the African continent.
Far from offering definitive answers, these images act as fragmentary gestures, open visual questions that point to the limits of our perspective. The “cataract” in the title alludes both to cultural opacity and to the relentless torrent of images that shape our perception. In this context, accepting that limit becomes the first step toward seeing—and understanding—differently.
Exhibition
Artworks
Butungatanatulu (Ed. 5/5)
2012
Digital photograph printed with mineral inks on archival cotton paper
The Confusion of the Pipe (Ed. 3/5)
2018
Digital photograph printed with mineral inks on archival cotton paper
The Lioness of Lasabi 02 (Ed. 3/3)
2017
Digital photograph printed with mineral inks on archival cotton paper
The Lioness of Lasabi 03 (Ed. 1/3)
2017
Digital photograph printed with mineral inks on archival cotton paper
The coming and the going (Ed. 1/5)
2018
Digital photograph printed with mineral inks on archival cotton paper
The water to start (Ed. 1/5)
2018
Digital photograph printed with mineral inks on archival cotton paper
Unknown Soldier 01 (Ed. 1/3)
2017
Digital photograph printed with mineral inks on archival cotton paper
Unknown Soldier 02 (Ed. 1/3)
2017
Digital photograph printed with mineral inks on archival cotton paper
Unknown Soldier 06 (Ed. 2/3)
2017
Digital photograph printed with mineral inks on archival cotton paper
