The CCCB is an institution that, consistently throughout its history, has defined itself as “a multidisciplinary cultural center dedicated to exploring the major themes of contemporary society through diverse languages and formats.” In its thirty-two years of history, topics such as artificial intelligence, the brain, suburban culture, and figures from diverse fields—Chris Ware, Agnès Varda, Stanley Kubrick, the Marquis de Sade, and, more recently, Mercè Rodoreda—have shaped exhibition and public programs capable of offering multiple approaches and levels of interpretation.
The Cult of Beauty addresses one of these great universal themes. As Umberto Eco pointed out, beauty is an aspiration shared by all cultures, although it has never been an absolute or immutable category. Its relevance is especially significant today, when it continues to be a social construct profoundly influenced by the beauty industry, the attention economy, and social media. The exhibition stems from a cultural and political stance that doesn’t so much aim to define beauty as to analyze the mechanisms that sustain its cult.
The show is, in fact, an adaptation of the exhibition of the same name presented at the Wellcome Collection in London in 2023. The original curator, Janice Li, has been joined by researchers blanca arias and Júlia Llull, whose contributions expand the initial narrative and incorporate more pluralistic, critical perspectives, open to dissent.
The exhibition begins deliberately chronologically, guiding the visitor through classical ideals of beauty, based on principles of proportion, gender, and virtue. However, this seemingly stable narrative is interrupted by artworks that introduce fissures and raise questions. The works of Lorenza Böttner and Carlos Motta, among others, problematize these normative models and demonstrate the extent to which beauty has historically functioned as a device for inclusion and exclusion.
As the exhibition progresses, dichotomies such as beautiful/ugly or virtue/failure begin to crumble, although others continue to operate strongly, especially the association between beauty and youth. Forms of exclusion persist, albeit in new configurations. From colonial exoticism, capable of objectifying any form of otherness, we move to contemporary mechanisms of invisibility linked to race, gender, or identity. In response, trans, queer, and non-binary collectives have developed strategies of self-expression, resistance, and the construction of collective memory. In this context, Colita’s portraits dedicated to the Roma community, Angélica Dass’s Humanae project, with its wide spectrum of skin tones, and Norma Pérez’s trans portraits engage particularly effectively with the exhibition’s themes.
The exhibition then delves into the complex relationship between beauty, medicine, and science. From the cosmetic practices of ancient Egypt to the anatomical ideals of the Renaissance, the journey leads to the present, where the obsession with image—an extreme result of the society of the spectacle—is amplified by the commercialization of pharmaceuticals, aesthetic treatments, and surgical procedures. The new standards are no longer necessarily associated with proportion or virtue, but increasingly with purchasing power. Beauty thus appears as a privilege that can be bought, with consequences that affect both physical health and emotional well-being. How can we identify these forms of control in order to conquer greater spaces of autonomy? Where does individual desire end and collective pressure begin? The works of Marina Vargas and Arvida Byström point precisely to this overflowing of normative limits, making visible the restrictions that underlie any standard.
The installation Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, by Xcessive Aesthetics, places the visitor before a distorting mirror that reflects the visual pollution that accompanies our daily experience. An incessant flow of images, filters, algorithms, and aspirational models that we consume through social media, from which it is increasingly difficult to escape, raises numerous questions: Who establishes the standards of beauty today: cultural institutions, the beauty industry, algorithms, or social media? How do filters, artificial intelligence, and digital editing affect our perception of ourselves? Can there be an aesthetic of difference that is not absorbed by the market? Are we witnessing a democratization of beauty or a sophistication of its control mechanisms? Is it possible to imagine a society less obsessed with appearance? What do we lose when we have we turned beauty into an obligation?
But The Cult of Beauty is not confined to the exhibition space. As is usual at the CCCB, the project is expanded through a robust public program featuring thinkers and specialists such as Eloy Fernández Porta, Remedios Zafra, and the curators themselves. In addition, there is an educational program for LGBTQ+ youth, coordinated by Cordova and developed in collaboration with artists like ¥E$Si PERSE and Toni Hervás, as well as the film series Beautiful and Eternal, curated by Desirée de Fez for Las Gandules 2026. The selection of fantasy and science fiction films addresses issues such as youth, aesthetic pressure, and the obsession with preserving beauty, extending many of the questions raised by the exhibition onto the screen.
Rather than offering definitive answers, The Cult of Beauty invites us to critically reconsider an idea we often take for granted. Because, if beauty has never been a neutral category, perhaps the real challenge lies in asking ourselves who defines it, who benefits from it, and who inevitably falls outside its boundaries.
The exhibition The Cult of Beauty, curated by Janice Li, blanca arias, and Júlia Llull, along with its accompanying public program, can be visited and followed at the CCCB until November 8, 2026.
[Artícle published in A*DESK 5-8-2026]
