Sofia Valiente
"Doug", 2014 inkjet print on semi-gloss fibre paper 29,7 x 42 cm ©Sofia Valiente courtesy Galerie Daniel Blau Munich / London
Valiente 01
"Ben (with cat)", 2014 inkjet print on semi-gloss fibre paper 29,7 x 42 cm © Sofia Valiente Courtesy: Galerie Daniel Blau Munich/London
Valiente 02
"David", 2014, inkjet print on semi-gloss fibre paper 29,7 x 42 cm © Sofia Valiente Courtesy: Galerie Daniel Blau Munich/London
Valiente 04
"Gene (with his dog Killer)", 2014 inkjet print on semi-gloss fibre paper 29,7 x 42 cm © Sofia Valiente courtesy Galerie Daniel Blau Munich / London
Valiente 05
"Richard III", inkjet print on semi-gloss fibre paper 29,7 x 42 cm © Sofia Valiente courtesy Galerie Daniel Blau Munich / London

Galerie Daniel Blau chez Meyer – Oceanic Art

17 rue des Beaux-Arts – 75006 – Paris
01 43 54 85 74
galerie-meyer-oceanic-art.com

Galerie Daniel Blau
Maximilianstr. 26 80539 Munich
+49 89 / 29 7342

51 Hoxton Square Londres N1 6 BP
+44 0 207 831 79 98
www.danielblau.com

Sofia Valiente
Miracle Village
7 – 22 November

I chose this unsettling exhibition from Daniel Blau as the forbidding subject in these intimate photographs struck a social, emotional and political cord.

I admire the compelling beauty of Sofia Valiente’s photos, and take a visceral pleasure from the artistic merit they contain, however the message I wish to convey here by offering my gallery as the exhibition space for her work on Miracle Village is that the problem of social rehabilitation of convicted felons in general is an important issue that seems to lack a proper solution.

There is no single manner in which society can deal with sexual offenders and Miracle Village, while an interesting and innovative approach, still creates exclusion and highlights the impossibility of redemption by keeping the felons in a physical and social ghetto from which they cannot escape.

I hope that Sofia Valiente’s intriguing Miracle Village project and the beautiful yet controversial photographs of its voluntary residents with which she has won the Daniel Blau “5 under 30” prize in 2014 and the World Press Photographers 1st prize Portraits : Stories in 2015 for her pictures and insightful reportage will open up the debate.

By looking at the issue through Sofia Valiente’s artistic lens we are forced to consider the painful subject of reintegration and how we deal with those people, who have left the group and served their sentences and whom we believe it is our duty to welcome back.
AJPM