The mask in traditional culture fuses artistic creation and ethnographic value. The exhibition uses the image as a documentary tool to delve into one of the most distinctive expressions of popular heritage, widely represented at the Museum through the winter masquerades of Ávila. The show broadens its focus to the Iberian Peninsula, contextualising these manifestations in their ancestral origins and cultural diversity. In doing so, it connects local traditions with other similar celebrations that endure in different parts of the peninsula, highlighting shared roots and regional variations.
His body of work underscores the vitality, symbolic strength and continuity of these rituals in contemporary society. The exhibition brings together 56 photographs taken between 2022 and 2026: 26 of them, including one large‑format image, dedicated to the main Ávila masquerades, and 30 to masquerades from other areas of the Iberian Peninsula, including several Spanish provinces and a number of Portuguese localities. Miguel Ángel Cruz works mainly in black and white, in order to focus attention on the subject and enhance the expressiveness of the masks and “the souls that inhabit them”, while also incorporating some colour photographs to highlight the chromatic richness of certain rites and to emphasise that, despite their ancestral origins, they remain very much alive today.
The photographer focuses particularly on portraiture, seeking the gaze that appears behind the mask and transforms a simple object into a ritual symbol connecting the spiritual and the earthly. While not a strictly documentary project, the exhibition brings together numerous demonic‑type masks and masquerades linked to the rural world, made from animal and plant materials, where elements such as purifying fire, proximity to Christian religious worship, and—essentially—the presence of young people entrusted with passing down these celebrations as rites of passage all play a key role. In addition, the exhibition is complemented by an audiovisual piece featuring more than one hundred photographs of dozens of masquerades, which will become part of the museum’s collections once the physical exhibition has ended.
Photographs courtesy of Carlos Blanco.
Opening and practical information
Opening: Tuesday, 11 February, at 7:00 p.m., at the Casa de los Deanes (Plaza de Nalvillos, 3).
The opening event featured a presentation by the Museum’s director, Javier Jiménez Gadea, together with the photographer, and an initial tour of the exhibition.
Visiting period: Until 29 March.
Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m.; Sundays, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Closed on Mondays.
