En la piel del otro

At Matabiau Station, on the main façade, Pilar Albarracín presents two large color photographs.

The building, a place of constant transit and a crossroads between the personal and the collective, thus becomes the site of an installation that asserts itself in the public space and engages in dialogue with the architecture as well as with the daily flow of people arriving and departing. A tapestry of colors composed of intertwined, motionless bodies, dressed in flamenco dresses, seems to rise in two columns toward the sky. The composition, frontal and dense, evokes a choral iconography where no hierarchy is visible: the individual dissolves into a compact mass that nevertheless preserves the singularity of each gesture and each gaze. Here, flamenco—a tradition steeped in history and resistance—breaks away from its festive dimension to become a political and bodily language.

Pilar Albarracín’s images invite us to pause after the celebration of the festival. This “after” is essential: a moment suspended like a ritual, so that each person’s vulnerability is balanced by the strength of the group. The bodies support one another, as if the ability to remain standing depended on the collective. The verticality of the columns introduces a monumental, sacrificial dimension.

Through powerful yet restrained imagery, Pilar Albarracín thus articulates a discourse on the body, community, tradition, and resistance, directly engaging viewers in the urban space.

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Pilar Albarracín’s exhibition will be echoed in a performance created with Toulouse residents during the festival’s opening weekend.

With the support of SNCF Retail & Connexions and SNCF Gares & Connexions.