Journey to the Center, Cristina de Middel

Cristina de Middel develops images that encourage reflection in the viewer. Her photographic essay Journey to the Center, which investigates phenomena related to the migration route through Mexico, has an atmosphere and symbolism inspired by Jules Verne’s famous novel Journey to the Center of the Earth.

With a language that combines straight documentary photography with constructed images and archival material, the narrative becomes multi-layered.

The migratory route through Central America is portrayed as a heroic and daring journey. Mexico, the setting for this adventure, is presented as the fascinating and extreme country that it is.

With an exhibition at Rencontres d’Arles 2024 and the image of the official Arles 2024 poster:

Cristina de Middel has been travelling for years with migrants on the train they call “the beast”, interviewing sicarios (hired killers), talking for hours with “coyotes” (clandestine smugglers) and police officers. By combining her own photographs with objects found in the desert and archive footage, she creates a multi-layered narrative.

The starting point is Tapachula, the Southern border of Mexico with Guatemala, and the journey ends in Felicity, a small town in California that is the officially “Center of the World”. This epic journey is punctuated by the accounts of three migrants recounting their terrible journey and commentary by the artist. An afterword by Mexican journalist, Pedro Anza, illuminates the issues at stake and the human consequences of the United States’ obsession with closing its borders.