Yufan Lu presents “Make Me Beautiful”, winner photobook of the V Star Photobook Dummy Award
On May 19th, at 6:30 pm at our headquarters, Villa Alegre (Via Augusta, 175) in Barcelona, Yufan Lu will present her photobook Make Me Beautiful, published thanks to winning the fifth edition of our Star Photobook Dummy Award. We will have the honor of hosting the author in conversation with Arianna Rinaldo, the Award Director, moderated by journalist Eva Millet, with the co-publishers Ediciones Posibles, Phree and RM Editorial.
This work addresses beauty stereotypes based on extensive artistic research conducted by Yufan Lu in her native country. Ingeniously, Yufan guides us through the process of being evaluated by beauty clinics and “redesigned” according to the advice of plastic surgeons.
“I grew up witnessing the rise of the cosmetic surgery industry, surrounded by judgment about my own appearance,” explains Yufan Lu. “I turned to photography as a way to confront my anxieties about my looks and explore the mechanisms behind cosmetic surgery in China.” To develop the project, the artist visited more than thirty cosmetic surgery clinics, carrying a self-portrait with her. There, so-called beauty designers analyzed her face and proposed surgical procedures, pointing out supposed “facial flaws.” “They told me that a face could be the key to achieving my dream life,” Lu remarks, revealing the harshness of commercial discourses that promise social success and happiness through physical transformation.
The Star Award is an annual prize for photobook dummies, created in 2021 to honor the creativity of graphic designer Inés Casals. To celebrate the award’s fifth anniversary, on May 19th we will present the exhibition Archivo de Amor. 50 fotolibros de la colección de Inés Casals (Archive of Love: 50 Photobooks from the Inés Casals Collection), curated by Arianna Rinaldo and Josep Maria de Llobet. The exhibition shows a selection from the designer’s personal library, now housed at the Institut d’Estudis Fotogràfics de Catalunya.
