Cristina de Middel's 'Apoteosis Now' at IVAM critiques image overload

Cristina de Middel (Alicante, 1975) presents 'Apoteosis Now', a site-specific project at the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM) curated by Iván de la Nuez. The exhibition features 252 photographs arranged as a 'cataract'—a term the artist uses to describe both the cascade of images in the digital age and the ocular disease that blurs vision. The show is conceived as a Borgesian Aleph, a space where reality and fiction converge, and images are reconfigured in a non-hierarchical flow. De Middel argues that images can both subjugate and liberate, and warns that the avalanche of photographs is as dangerous as those withheld. The title 'Apoteosis Now' suggests a transition between the closure of one world and the possibility of a more sustainable, just, and inclusive one, contrasting apotheosis with apocalypse. The installation critiques how social media, digital media, and artificial intelligence keep us in a state of suspicion, and asserts that art must act as intelligent artifice beyond AI. The exhibition runs until October 12 at IVAM, Valencia.