Refusal. Second Fracture. Rafael Milach (PHotoESPAÑA 2026)

From 5 June to 27 September, the Goya Hall at the Círculo de Bellas Artes will present the work of Rafal Milach, member of the prestigious Magnum Agency. As part of the PHotoESPAÑA 2026 photography festival, this exhibition analyses the propaganda mechanisms, the collapse of official narratives and the rise of joint action in Eastern Europe.

The exhibition traces the mechanisms  through which official narratives in Eastern Europe are constructed and fractured through his work (Gliwice, Poland, 1978). The project’s starting point is Xenia Degelko, a young Belarusian activist who became a propaganda icon after a song praising the regime of Alexander Lukashenko went viral in 2012.  Her image formed part of a symbolic gallery of “winners”, made up of exemplary workers and model citizens in order to reinforce the State’s narrative.

However, this construction began to fracture through small acts of individual resistance and ultimately collapsed in 2020, when Degelko took part in protests against widely contested elections, along with millions of citizens.  This shift reveals both the weakness of the representational mechanisms of power and the ability of joint action to overthrow them.

In parallel, social mobilisations in Poland in defence of women’s rights, the LGBTQ+ community and the rule of law highlight the emergence of self-organised networks that have compensated for institutional shortcomings in times of crisis, such as the mass arrival of refugees following the invasion of Ukraine.  These dynamics have led to transnational communities of solidarity and reveal the vulnerability of protection systems against structural inequality.

Through works such as The Winners and Seeding, along with murals, flags, videos, and materials from the Archive of Public Protests, the exhibition highlights the power of collective practices as forces capable of challenging established political orders.

Image Credits:

• Rafał Milach, The Winners. © Rafał Milach
• Rafał Milach & Karolina Gembara, SEEDING, 2018. © Rafał Milach & Karolina Gembara