America

PHOTOGRAPHY

May 19

Photographer Magdalena Correa presents ‘America’ – a powerful selection of photographs at Tönnheim Gallery in Carabanchel, Spain. The exhibition revisits her most emblematic projects in Latin America, portraying remote communities through an immersive and poetic lens that captures both the rawness and surreal beauty of life on the margins.

Photography Magdalena Correa

Tönnheim Gallery in Carabanchel, Madrid, is currently hosting an exhibition of works by acclaimed visual artist Magdalena Correa, on view until July 1. The show features a curated selection of photographs and videos that revisit several of her most significant projects in Latin America, including work produced in Peru, Colombia, Mexico, and her native Chile.

Rather than approaching these communities as a detached observer, Correa immerses herself in the environments she documents. Her process involves living alongside the people she photographs, sharing in their daily lives and learning their customs—resulting in images that are intimate, layered, and profoundly human.

“When I revisited these projects,” Correa explains, “I realised that a kind of surreal or semi-surreal atmosphere unifies them all.” From the dizzying altitudes of La Rinconada, the highest mine in the world in the Peruvian Andes, to the matriarchal strength of women in Mexico’s Mezquital Valley, through the spiritual vastness of the Atacama Desert and the vibrant resilience of the Wayúu people in northern Colombia, Correa’s work captures a delicate balance between harsh realities and the quiet strength of those who endure them.

Her photographs and videos are filled with paradoxes—fantasy and harshness, stillness and movement, solitude and community.

“I remember the air always felt charged with improbable situations, surprising characters, ingenuity, gratitude, humor… It made me feel happy to be part of that way of understanding life.”

This exhibition also functions as a personal tribute to Latin America, the continent where Correa was born and which has inspired much of her creative journey. It's a visual homage to places that exist far from the centers of power, yet pulse with meaning, mystery, and a beauty that defies convention.

Tönnheim Gallery, known for its commitment to exploring the idea of the pictorial across mediums such as photography, sculpture, installation, video, and drawing, offers a thoughtful platform for Correa’s work. Her practice, while rooted in the documentary, transcends it—bridging visual anthropology and contemporary art with lyrical, unflinching clarity.

“When I revisited these projects, I realised that a kind of surreal or semi-surreal atmosphere unifies them all.”

’AMERICA’ will be on display at Tönheim Gallery until 1st July.

Address: Calle Alejandro Sánchez, 94, Carabanchel, Madrid
Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday, 11:00–14:00 and 16:30–19:30; Saturday 11:00–14:00 or by appointment
Contact: Mattias Tönnheim — +34 625 955 007 / mattias@wadstromtonnheim.se
www.tonnheimgallery.com
Instagram: @tonnheimgallery

About Magdalena

Magdalena Correa, born in 1968 in Santiago de Chile, is an artist living in Madrid who mainly works in photography and video installation.

She has specialised in photographic and video research projects about isolated and extreme territories, where man lives. Research areas: “Austral” (2006) about XI Region of Aysén in the south of Chile; “La desaparición” (2008) about Chilean village “Villa Las Estrellas” located in Antarctic; “La Rinconada” (2013) about the tallest gold mine in the world at 5.600 meters high in Ananea District (Perú); “Luxury has a new Address” (2014) about the wealth and ostentation of Kuwaití society; “Wayúu” (2015) about the Wayúú ethnicity located in Alta Guajira desert (Colombia); “Suiti” (2018) about Suiti culture (Intangible Cultural Heritage that requires urgent safeguard measures by UNESCO) located in Alsunga, Latvia.

To see more of Magdalena’s work, visit her website or follow her on Instagram

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America

“I remember the air always felt charged with improbable situations, surprising characters, ingenuity, gratitude, humor… It made me feel happy to be part of that way of understanding life.”

“When I revisited these projects, I realised that a kind of surreal or semi-surreal atmosphere unifies them all.”

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