The Stones of the Sky. Isabel Muñoz (PHotoESPAÑA 2026)

The Royal Collections Gallery will host an exhibition from 4 June to 6 September in which the photographer and National Photography Award winner, Isabel Muñoz, turns her gaze to the Royal Monastery of El Escorial and the surrounding La Herrería forest. Through images and other elements, the artist addresses stone as a threshold between geological time, the human will for transcendence and the capacity to imagine, create and make sense of the materials provided by nature. This exhibition forms part of the PHotoESPAÑA 2026 festival. 

Through photographs, objects, video and installations, Muñoz builds an experience that goes beyond the still image and opens up a more telluric and sensory experience.  The exhibition is the result of a sensitive exploration of the territory and a passionate investigation into the figure of Philip II, who  conceived the Monastery as an architecture intended to be inscribed within a greater symbolic order, connected to the Temple of Jerusalem and the idea of cosmic harmony.

This exhibition project forms part of the three-year Cuadernos de Campo programme, which focuses on the natural spaces of the Royal Sites managed by National Heritage. Through this initiative, which is the result of the collaboration between National Heritage, ACCIONA and PHotoESPAÑA, renowned Spanish photographers enter into dialogue with environments of exceptional value, in order to raise public awareness of the importance of preserving an environment that is not only a source of life, but also an essential landscape and cultural legacy.

Image Credits:

• Juan Glassford. View of Escorial with Isabel Muñoz, 2026 © Juan Glassford