Essential Power. Women, rural life and self-representation. From the Valley to the Prado

The Prado Museum will be presenting a photographic exhibition from 12 June to 14 September, which is the result of a collaboration between PradoEducación  and a group of women from the Valle del Jerte Association of Municipalities. In this exhibition, which forms part of the PHotoESPAÑA 2025 festival, the participants are represented as allegories of the elements that make up their life in rural areas, merging the symbolic with daily life.  

From an eco-feministic standpoint, the exhibition offers a reflection on identity, territory and the deep relationship between women and their environment.  It is the result of a creative and collaborative process originating in the From the Valley to the Prado project, which has been developed by PradoEducación since 2019.

In this edition, the focus is on a group of women from the Valle del Jerte Association of Municipalities, who have built a visual narrative that interlinks identity, landscape and memory through photography and with the collaboration of the artist Pilar Soto. Inspired by the self-portraits of 19th-century female creators in the museum’s collections and the depictions of mythological and symbolic female figures associated with nature, the participants have been self-portrayed as allegories of the essential elements that make up their daily life: water, earth, fire and air, but also as motherhood, work, community or tradition.

Image Credits:

• Sofía de Juan, Allegory of Folklore I, 2024 © Prado Museum
• Sofía de Juan, Allegory of Nature I, 2024 © Prado Museum
• Sofía de Juan, Allegory of Music I, 2024 © Prado Museum
• Sofía de Juan, Allegory of Music II, 2024 © Prado Museum