Museu Boca del Calvari is hosting ‘From the Forest to the Stars’, by photographer José Luis Carrillo, starting this Friday

Boca del Calvari Museum in Benidorm will host the exhibition ‘From the Forest to the Stars’ starting this Friday, October 31st. This double exhibition by photographer José Luis Carrillo brings together two of his most acclaimed projects: ‘The Children of the Deer’ and ‘Spanish Files’. The Councillor for Historical and Cultural Heritage, Ana Pellicer, explained that ‘From the Forest to the Stars’ unites “two works that share a common theme: the search for magical thinking, for that which escapes reason but continues to resonate in the collective imagination of our country.”

The exhibition opening will take place at 7:00 p.m. and will include a guided tour led by the artist, who will offer insights into the work, as well as some of the subjects featured in the exhibition. Therefore, the Councillor for Historical and Cultural Heritage has publicly invited the public to "participate in this event and enjoy a work that is as personal as it is beautiful, which immerses the viewer in a journey that goes from the real to the inexplicable and that is sure to leave no one indifferent."

The Sons of the Deer

The Upper Tagus Valley, between Guadalajara and Teruel, is one of the most sparsely populated areas in Europe. In this rugged landscape, where nature reigns supreme, the echoes of an ancestral cosmogony inherited from the Celtic peoples still linger.

There, the stag—symbol of Cernunnos, the horned god and lord of the forest—remains a vibrant presence in the popular imagination.

In ‘The Children of the Stag,’ José Luis Carrillo documents the last inhabitants of this magical territory, heirs to a worldview seemingly frozen in time. His portraits, landscapes, and everyday scenes reveal the enduring legacy of an archaic way of thinking that connects humankind with the land and animals.

A poetic and anthropological perspective on a community that, isolated by depopulation, has preserved intact a way of understanding life and nature. This project has received the Juan Gil-Albert Alicante Institute of Culture Award 2025, the Revela’t Award 2022, and is part of the prestigious ‘Los Cuadernos de La Kursala’ collection, in addition to having been exhibited at festivals and art centres throughout the country.

‘Spanish Files’

Between the 1970s and 80s, Spain experienced a veritable UFO craze. Sightings filled newspaper front pages, news broadcasts opened with mysterious testimonies, and ufologists were media personalities. Decades later, media interest has faded, but the cases continue. And so do the questions.

Driven by unexplained personal experiences, José Luis Carrillo embarks on a photographic and documentary investigation across Spain in ‘Spanish Files,’ following in the footsteps of JJ Benítez and other researchers of the mystery.

Through photographs, original documents, newspaper clippings, military reports, and archival material, the author offers a reflection on faith, doubt, and the human need to believe in the unknown.

This exhibition, produced by the Andalusian Centre for Photography (CAF), brings together 50 photographs and hundreds of documents that form a unique visual archive on the history of the UFO phenomenon in Spain.

Between myth and reality

Taken together, ‘From the Forest to the Stars’ proposes a journey from the earthly and ancestral realm of ‘The Children of the Deer’ to the cosmic and elusive realm of ‘Spanish Files’. A voyage between earth and sky, between collective memory and the past, that delves into how humankind constructs its relationship with reality through magical thinking.

Both works address themes deeply linked to identity and the recent history of Spain. In them, José Luis Carrillo documents fragments of our reality and our past, but he does so seeking the traces of myth, mysticism, and spirituality that still linger beneath the surface of the everyday.

The exhibition can be visited at Museu Boca del Calvari from this Friday until next January, with free admission and during the museum's opening hours. Specifically, Monday to Sunday, from 12 pm to 8 pm.