They expose the shots that Graciela Iturbide captured in Chiapas

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chis., About 100 people attended the opening of the exhibition Imagining the imperceptible: Graciela Iturbide in Chiapas, composed of 29 works by the Mexican photographer.

Magali Alanís Rodríguez, from the Batsi Lab collective, organizer of the exhibition, explained: “the purpose of the exhibition is to bring together the work of photographer Graciela Iturbide from Chiapas,” who did not attend the opening due to her work commitments.

Alanís said that as the documentation center of Chiapas, at Batsi Lab “we focus on portfolios that have been produced here by authors at various times in history.”

“Many of us know the work that Graciela did in Oaxaca and northern Mexico, but little is known about her portfolio from Chiapas, which she created between 1975 and 1979,” the photographer added in an interview.

He commented that “the exhibition invites people to discover the photographs she took for the now-defunct National Indigenous Institute; there she was finding her vision, since it was at the beginning of her career; you can see the curiosity of a photographer, not a beginner, but who is discovering in the native peoples the lyrical language that she developed later.”

Rodríguez pointed out that the exhibition, inaugurated last Saturday at Batsi Lab, is made up of 29 images, most of them unpublished, which will be exhibited until March 14.

“These photographs were never printed; they were selected by us, because Graciela gave us access to her negatives,” he said.

He recalled that Batsi Lab “is a documentation center to gather the visual history of Chiapas. Since 2020 we have held exhibitions that have served to narrate specific moments in Chiapas history,” he highlighted.

Rodríguez stated: “we have seen that in our state photography goes hand in hand with social movements, with the struggles of indigenous communities.

“For us it is very important that all photography we handle here is one that is committed to the documented causes. We handle images and materials with museum quality,” he said.

Alanís Rodríguez specified that the inauguration began with the transmission of a video in which photographer José Ángel Rodríguez explained the development process in the dark room.

“People came out very excited to see the original images of Graciela Iturbide.

“The space was filled. Of the exhibitions we have presented, this was the one that most people attended,” he concluded.