Helena began collecting photographs at El Rastro every weekend four years ago. What started as just another hobby eventually turned into an obsession, which has crystallized into this beautiful exhibition. “At first, I didn’t know what I wanted and bought whatever caught my eye at the moment: cut-out photos, couples in love, seemingly happy families. However, Sunday after Sunday, I found myself always asking for the same thing: I wanted women in the water,” she explains.

“Déjala correr” is an anthology of images that reflect happiness, freedom, sisterhood, and fun, showing dozens of women in beaches, pools, fountains, and lakes. Accompanied by friends, family, and even strangers, each snapshot captures a frozen moment in time, a borrowed memory used to create a very personal and cathartic exhibition that has also helped the artist reconcile with her mother’s life. “I look for her in all these photographs.” 

“My mother has a special relationship with the sea. She separated from my father in the summer, and she did it at the beach. I partly think she got frozen there, in that place, in that year. We believe this is when her consumption became more noticeable,” analyzes Helena Alarcón, who is debuting her first exhibition, though it surely won’t be the last.