MABEL PALACÍN
Barcelona, Spain, 1964
Received the Fundación Botín Art Grant in 2010

180º Blown Up, 2011
111 colour photographs (Giclée print)
1 measuring 30 × 57 cm; 61 measuring 30 × 24 cm; 49 measuring 30 × 40 cm
Installation. Dimensions variable
Gift of the artist, 2012

Mabel Palacín explores the construction of cinematic images, paying close attention to the spectator’s point of view in order to ensure an accessible reading of the narrative.

The title of the project refers to the “180-degree rule”, a cinematographic convention that governs spatial relationships between two characters on screen. A panoramic view of several characters on a street in Venice plays a central role in this multilayered narrative. The image is composed of many individual shots, allowing even the smallest detail to be rendered with maximum clarity, adopting the look of a cinematic set.

Each group of images focuses on a specific area of the central composition. The process recalls Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Blow-Up, in which a fashion photographer believes he may have witnessed a murder based on the photographs he took in a public park. He repeatedly enlarges the same image in search of evidence that ultimately never materialises, leading him to question whether the crime ever occurred. Here, Palacín similarly invites the viewer to reflect on their own position and on the very definition of the image before them.