Frank Thiel: ‘Quinceañeras’
The photographer presents a new body of work at Blain | Southern, Berlin, portraying Cuban girls on their 15th birthday as a metaphor for the country as a whole
The photographer presents a new body of work at Blain | Southern, Berlin, portraying Cuban girls on their 15th birthday as a metaphor for the country as a whole
Leaving East Berlin for the West of the city in 1985, aged 19, Frank Thiel spent the subsequent 25 years documenting the transformation of the city after the fall of the Berlin Wall. For his latest project, presented at Blain | Southern, Berlin, the artist has been investigating another transformative event, this time in Cuba: ‘When a girl in Cuba turns 15-years-old it's probably the most important day of her life, the transformation from a teenager into your adult life. I thought that portraying a generation of young Cuban women, all born in 2000, is probably an interesting metaphor to speak about the island and the society as a whole, which is going through a similar transformative process.’
Frank Thiel, ‘Quinceañeras’ opens at Blain | Southern, Berlin, on 27 April and runs from 28 April – 16 June 2018. For more information visit the Blain | Southern website here.
A Zapote Productions film. Courtesy: the artist and Blain | Southern, Berlin/London
