Elisava alumna Paula Mateu, graduate of the Master’s in Photography and Design, will be featured in the 6th edition of Lumínic – Sant Cugat Photography Festival with her project ‘The Archive of Innocence’. Her work will be on view in the outdoor space of the Celler Modernista from May 30 to July 13, 2025, as part of a program centered on this year’s theme: Power Relations.
Through photographs that blur the lines between personal and collective memory, Paula invites viewers to see themselves in the family albums of others. “Recognize yourself in the albums of others, see your memories through theirs, and see yourself through them,” she writes. “I grew up happy in an unhappy family, shaped by social expectations, by having rather than wanting.” When her mother chose a new path and her father was left alone at home, the life she had been promised dissolved—and a new, more introspective narrative began to take shape.
Born in Mallorca in 1999, Paula Mateu studied classical dance for ten years before shifting her focus to photography. That early training left a lasting impression, influencing her photographic practice through a keen sensitivity to form, light, and movement.
Her project will be displayed in the open-air exhibition at Celler Modernista in Sant Cugat, alongside other works exploring the dynamics of power in personal and political spheres.