Exhibition “Lux & Umbra. Viviane Sassen”

From 3 June to 26 July, as part of PHotoESPAÑA 2026, Lux & Umbra, Viviane Sassen’s first solo exhibition in Spain, will be presented here. The project spans more than thirty years of her work and is structured as a free visual archive, where images from different periods coexist without chronology or strict order.

The exhibition is based on key series by the artist, including Flamboya and Parasomnia, as well as early photographs taken in Africa and materials that have been repositioned in a new context especially for this show. These works underline the influence of the African experience on the formation of her visual language.

Sassen works on the boundary between photography and abstraction. Light and shadow become not only tools for her, but also a way of speaking about memory, uncertainty and the internal state of the image. Colour, geometry and the plasticity of forms transform photographs into almost sculptural compositions.

Female figures hold a special place, through which the artist explores identity as a constantly moving process, in which vulnerability and strength combine.

The exhibition also includes new works, among them the collage series Cadavre Exquis. These expand Sassen’s visual language and turn the exhibition into a living system where images enter into constant dialogue with each other.