Portraits of lives
Artist's diary. Photographic series. Micro-documentary. Short film. Video art. Painting. Net.Art
The exhibition by the students of LABA Valencia invites us to immerse ourselves in their daily lives, the journeys that have brought them here, their way of living these years, and to explore their memories. From childhood to present-day events, they share their sensitivity and conviction that through artistic forms they discover themselves and open up to the world.
The exhibition’s opening brought together students, faculty, and visitors for a collective tour of the displayed works: photographic series, short films, video art, painting, microdocumentaries, and net.art. The pieces served as a starting point for conversations on topics such as memory, identity, origins, and the development of each creative process. The audience who explored the exhibition experienced a journey that involved seeing, listening, reading, connecting, and asking questions.
The exhibition is made up of the winning proposals submitted to the call launched in December 2024 by LABA Valencia, aimed at students and graduates of the BA (Hons) en Graphic design & Digital media and BA (Hons) in Photography and Video at LABA Valencia.
Portraits of Lives, a selection gathering the best works chosen from the call::
Cosette Reyes Guzmán
Juliette Roy Batanero
Sofía Rondón Machado
Besel Said Ballan
Anna Castellanos Esteve
Elena Soler González
Alfiia Zulkarneeva
Mimi Castillo Buelvas
Ximena España Lemus
Yasmin Vafaei
Denis Vylkost
Pau Torres
Exhibition project director:
Cristina Casanova Seuma
Exhibition curators:
Cosette Reyes Guzmán
Juliette Roy Batanero
Cosette Reyes Guzmán, Mexico
Cosette Reyes Guzmán is graduated from the BAH en Graphic design & Digital media at LABA Valencia.
Designer, anthropologist, and biochemical engineer originally from Mexico. Her practice lies at the intersection of art, design, and science. Through media such as video art, artificial intelligence, 3D, and motion graphics, her work explores surrealist and Dadaist aesthetics, decontextualised objects, and unusual perspectives on the everyday.
She lives in Valencia, Spain, where she works in academic communication at LABA Valencia. School of Art, Design & New Media, having graduated in 2024 as part of the first cohort of the degree in Graphic Design & Digital Media.
In 2022 and 2023, her pieces were consecutive winners of the “El Cuerpo Sentido” and “¿Qué mundos queremos?” calls by SMTH Art, forming part of public exhibitions in five Spanish cities. In 2024, she participated in the curatorship of the exhibition “Miradas y recorridos íntimos” during the 10 Sentidos Festival held at Las Naves (Valencia), where two of her video art pieces were also presented.
She has collaborated with House of Chappaz gallery, one of the most renowned in Spain. She is developing “margo,” a hybrid platform that hosts and gives visibility to outsider art and controversial forms of artistic expression.
Cosette Reyes Guzmán, Mexico
Artist’s diary
Fragments of lives
“This diary is an intimate collection of memories observed and narrated by a character who dwells between the pages and tells my personal story. With illustrations, words, and textures, I make an introspection across similar dates in different years, where a range of emotions can be seen as memories transform into visual narratives, exploring the tension between memory as inspiration and as a burden, weaving the everyday with the transcendent, and shaping an archive of what has been lived and forgotten.”
– Cosette Reyes Guzmán.
Juliette Roy Batanero, Spain
Juliette Roy Batanero is a third-year student of the BA (Hons) in Photography and Video at LABA Valencia.
In 2025 she received the Liu Shiming Art Foundation Scholarship.
Photographer and multidisciplinary artist. Art has always been her refuge, a space where chaos finds order and expression. She is constantly in a state of creation, translating her emotions, perceptions, and observations into visual narratives. She enjoys portraying raw images focused on everyday life scenes, embracing experimentation and the unknown.
Juliette Roy Batanero, Spain
Artist’s diary
Farewell letter to my childhood
An artist’s diary. A photographic report of my village, La Iglesuela del Tiétar (Toledo). The photos were taken with an expired black-and-white film, ISO 1600, resulting in more grain than usual. I decided to explore the corners of my childhood to show, through my eyes, what this place means to me. One piece is designed to be touched, inviting the viewer to take their time turning the pages and observing each space.
Sofía Rondón Machado, Venezuela
Sofía Rondón Machado is a third-year student of the BA (Hons) in Photography and Video at LABA Valencia.
Photographer based in Spain specialising in portraiture. Her passion is fueled by the fusion of femininity with conceptual and aesthetic themes. Her work is distinguished by the conscious integration of silhouettes, shapes, and movements in her compositions. Light and shadow are her main tools; she plays with them to highlight delicacy and strength, revealing details that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Sofía Rondón Machado, Venezuela
Artist’s diary
Spring
“Spring”, it is an artist’s diary in the form of a photo album, entirely handmade. Almost like a dialogue with myself, through ups and downs and with photographs ranging from digital to physical, I put on paper my constant mental struggle, narrating the chronological journey across three of my lives. In the diary, I explore themes such as nostalgia, personal search, and migration, making an analogy with different weather conditions in the places where I have lived, based on the saying that gives the piece its title: “Venezuela is an eternal spring.”.
Besel Robert Said Ballan, Venezuela
Besel Robert Said Ballanis a second-year student of the BA (Hons) in Photography and Video at LABA Valencia.
In his creations, he explores themes such as truth, hope, personality, and the reflection of our desires. He sees it as a collection of emotions driven by emptiness and the thirst for warmth, which manifest in the real world as art, a story, a word, and a title that merely serves as a boundary for what it can mean—though that meaning depends on each individual and their relationship with the world.
Besel Robert Said Ballan, Venezuela
Photographs, paintings and drawings, video art, personal diary
“Farm” Sonata for Piano No. 2
“It is difficult to explain the reasons behind some works. It could be a feeling of guilt, love, hate, frustration, resentment… or all of them. I always allow myself to feel the extremes and write down my conclusions. I know that each experience is a palette of colours; I use everything I have accumulated and that makes me happy. I am happy knowing I have the ability to convince myself with shapes, textures, and sounds.
They are all the memories that accompanied me and saw me laugh and cry.”
– Besel Robert Said Ballan.
Anna Castellanos Esteve, Spain
Anna Castellanos Esteve is a second-year student of the BA (Hons) in Photography and Video at LABA Valencia.
Through techniques such as digital photography, analogue, Polaroid, cyanotype, and video, she explores the thresholds where time dissolves. Her images move between the real and the dreamlike, memory and forgetting, light and darkness. From vulnerability and melancholy, she constructs narratives that invite the viewer to get lost in the margins of intimacy.
Anna Castellanos Esteve, Spain
Photographic series
Gloria y Consuelo
“Special tribute to Gloria Fernández and Xelo (Consuelo) Bohigues, who accompanied me from my childhood until they passed away in 2019 and 2020.“
– Anna Castellanos Esteve.
Elena Soler González, Spain
Elena Soler González is a third-year student of the BA (Hons) in Photography and Video at LABA Valencia.
Elena Soler is a young film director who has won several national awards for her short films, establishing herself as an emerging voice in the independent audiovisual cinema sector. Her style is characterised by emotive and profound narratives, addressing socially impactful themes with sensitivity and creativity. She is currently in her final year of the BAH in Photography and Video at LABA Valencia – School of Art, Design & New Media. Her cinematic approach stands out for her ability to tell moving stories and her technical skill in directing, editing, and lighting. Her work has been recognised at various festivals and competitions, reflecting her dedication and talent within the film industry.
Elena Soler González, Spain
Documentary + photographic series
Voices from a street
“Walking through streets filled with water, seeing fields submerged, and the sad faces of those who have lost everything has been very hard. It feels as if our land, which gives us so much, is crying out for help. Seeing Valencia, a place full of life, in these conditions breaks my heart. The fields, landscapes, and streets we know so well seem to have been devastated. Each photograph is an attempt to capture not only the destruction but also the hope that, despite everything, remains.
In one of the photos, a van struggles not to be swept away by the waters, on the verge of falling into the ravine—the very ravine that destroyed everything. It is a sign that this land, although damaged, can be reborn. In another image, neighbours are helping each other, reminding us that we are strong as a community. There is pain, yes, but also a clear message: our land needs us to care for it, to make changes before it is too late.”
– Elena Soler González.
Alfiia Zulkarneeva, Russia
Alfiia Zulkarneeva is graduated from the BAH en Graphic design & Digital media at LABA Valencia.
She has lived in various cities across Russia, Spain, and Canada, which has allowed her to become familiar with both Asian and Western cultures. This experience has shaped her interest in art and cultural history.
Her work often originates from encounters with objects, places, nature, and people. She maintains a multidisciplinary approach, working with a wide range of materials and techniques including printmaking, design, new media, clay, photography, and video. Her creative practice blends experimentation with unexpected discoveries, drawing inspiration from the constant transformation of each new day and the drive to create new situations.
Alfiia Zulkarneeva, Russia
Interactive web and video creation
Walking perspectives
“«Walking Perspectives» it began as a very personal exploration of Valencia’s relationship with the Turia River, a connection that was broken after the catastrophic floods of 1957. This project reflects a desire to revive the spirit of the river, to reimagine its essence flowing once again through the city. For me, it is a meditation on memory, loss, and the power of rituals that bind us to places lost in time.
Inspired by the art of walking, I adopted walking as both method and metaphor. As I travelled along the historic riverbed, I observed the dramatic transformation of the landscape. The width of the old river is still visible, but its natural currents have been replaced by still flows of rocks. Where water once flowed, cars and trucks now circulate, their monotonous hum accentuating the lifelessness of the space. This contrast between past and present became more evident as I moved through the landscape, reflecting on how urbanisation has reshaped the riverbed. The memory of the river endured, reminding me of its vital strength and beauty, while the present silently spoke of its loss.”
– Alfiia Zulkarneeva.
Michelle Castillo Buelvas, Colombia Ximena España Lemus, Guatemala Yasmin Vafaei, Iran
Mimi Castillo y Ximena España are students of the second year of BAH en Graphic design & Digital media, Yasmin Vafaei is a second-year student of the BA (Hons) in Photography and Video at LABA Valencia.
This piece is deeply personal, born from fragments of memories and intimate experiences. It is not a story with an ending, but one that lingers, urging viewers to question the reliability of their own senses. What does it mean to feel that something is real? To belong within the contours of your own skin?
https://www.instagram.com/notfromspaindesign
https://www.instagram.com/itsmimicastillo
https://www.instagram.com/yasminvafaeii
Michelle Castillo Buelvas, Colombia Ximena España Lemus, Guatemala Yasmin Vafaei, Iran
Micro-doc and videoart
Senseless
Design and script: Mimi Castillo, Ximena España
Direction, editing and camera: Yasmin Vafaei
Actress: Elsa Racinais Gresa
Music: Pt III Counter Clock – Fyear
Special thanks to: Anna Castellanos
Present, yet disconnected.
The world feels distant, as if reality itself has gone silent. At its core, it’s a profound estrangement from the self — a separation that cannot be measured.
There is a stranger in the mirror, staring back with unfamiliar eyes; the world hums and the walls dissolve into a dream — or is it a memory?
With each breath, the chest sinks under the weight of gravity, and catching one’s breath becomes a bitter game against the finitude of air. The stranger in the mirror has set the stage: lights and flashes, shadows twisting and folding into unfamiliar shapes.
It’s hard to look away — the eyes are anchored to the reflection. Every movement is orchestrated by fear and unease. Is it fear of the unknown, or the realisation that this detachment is an undeniable part of the self?
These moments are not only disorienting, but profoundly alienating, forcing a confrontation with the fragility of identity. The room is the same, the body unchanged — and yet, everything feels unfamiliar.
There are fragments of memories interwoven.
The question arises: where does the self begin and the reflection end?
Denis Vylkost, Russia
Denis Vylkost is a second-year student of the BA (Hons) in Photography and Video at LABA Valencia.
“I have always wandered like a stranger. I felt I didn’t belong anywhere. In moments of solitude and detachment, truth arrives — and with it, certainties are revealed. Vulnerability gives way to genuine strength.
The broader the perspective, the more the self dissolves — that fragile construct I once called ‘me’.
No matter our path, in the face of the inevitable and under the divine gaze, we are all the same.
My creation is a reflection and, ultimately, a tribute to life and death.”
– Denis Vylkost.
Denis Vylkost, Russia
Photographic series
Phantasm
“«Phantasm» is a reflection on the transience of existence, capturing the dissolution of form and the ambiguity of presence through spectral black and white abstractions. It is a visual exploration of the ephemeral and the ineffable, where movement goes beyond the corporeal.“
– Denis Vylkost.
Pau Torres Rubio, Spain
Pau Torres is a second-year student of the BA (Hons) in Photography and Video at LABA Valencia.
Pau Torres defines themself as a queer multidisciplinary artist. Art is their way of understanding their own identity and the world around them, where the process becomes a kind of play in which the journey matters more than the outcome. Themes such as childhood, personal experiences and social struggles are central to their work.
Pau Torres Rubio, Spain
Photographic Series
Conceived without sin
“This photo shoot plays with the idea of gender and Christian symbolism: the image of Christ seen from a ‘fangirl’ perspective.
The space, the nude, and the intervention on the image.
A room filled with posters — a personal space many of us use to reflect our tastes, personality, and to create shrines to loved ones, inspirations, and idols.
In this case, the image of Jesus hanging on the wall.
The nude figure, which references Jesus through an androgynous body.”
– Pau Torres Rubio.
Exhibition curatorship
The curatorship was led by Cosette Reyes Guzmán and Juliette Roy Batanero, under the direction of Cristina Casanova Seuma, director of the exhibition project and of LABA Valencia.
Students from LABA Valencia—Isaac Fernández, Sergio Pons and Santiago Pabón—also took part in the organisation and installation of the exhibition.
LABA Valencia opens its doors to the public to visit both exhibitions throughout the month of May 2025, Monday to Friday from 10 am to 7 pm.
LABA Valencia. School of Art, Design & New Media
Calle Quart 21-23, Valencia, 46001.
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