Fake magazines tackle real issues

Spanish artist Nuria Carrasco specializes in creating fake magazines that look very much like genuine high-brow publications.

The 57-year-old has received widespread critical acclaim since 2013 when she published the first fake magazine.

Works from her Fake Magazines project are on display at the Cervantes Institute in Beijing, as part of an ongoing exhibition entitled Original or Copy?.

Vowei, Carrasco's latest work – the centerpiece of her Beijing show – focuses on Chinese millennials, the children of first-generation Chinese immigrants living and working in Madrid.

Carrasco in 2018 copied both the title and format of global fashion trendsetter Vogue for her work titled Vowei.

Unlike Vogue's cover girls who are usually big-name actresses or supermodels, Vowei's cover portrays Huichi Chiu, a comparatively less distinguished Chinese-Spanish actress, dressed in a qipao dress.

Thumbing through the magazine, attendees at the Beijing exhibition may first get hooked by pastiche ads and brands such as Mio Mio and Dulce Galbana.

And then, they may be wowed by the thriving Chinese immigrant community in a faraway European country. Apart from Chiu, a dozen Chinese millennials from the Spanish capital appear in the publication.

"The younger Chinese in Madrid are so different from their parents, which impressed me deeply and inspired me to showcase their lives through my art," said Carrasco during an interview with China Daily Website.