2022 Programming

In the festivities, ceremonies and rituals of the indigenous communities, the Maya-Tzeltales and Maya-Tzotziles of the highlands of Chiapas, there is a deep religious syncretism. The events last several days. The music, prayers, posh (a traditional alcholized beverage) and copal are fundamental elements that are needed in order to enter into communion with the deities. El aliento de los Santos, The Breath of the Saints is a photographic series that derives from El Costumbre, a photographic project that I have worked on for more than three decades in the Maya-Tzeltal community of Tenejapa. 

My main intention when making this series of images was to recreate the mystical-magical atmosphere of the rituals, taking advantage of the smoke produced by the copal and candles, and taking some backlit photographs so that the people became ghostly silhouettes: a typical image of a connection with the world of saints.

(In exhibition until February 28th, 2022)

Lorenzo Armendáriz

Lorenzo Armendáriz is a self-taught photographer who specializes in the photographic documentation of diverse ethnic groups and has documented more than 40 indigenous communities in Mexico and Guatemala. His work draws back particularly to the human cosmovision, as well as the transit of nomadic and semi-nomadic groups. For them, journey is not synonymous to displacement; it is a way for life to reaffirm itself.

His most known works are: La Gente del Viaje, (People of the Journey), Los Senderos de la Fe (The Paths of Faith), Los Guerreros del Desierto (The Warriors of the Desert) and El Costumbre (The Custom). The first, which Armendáriz has been working on with gypsy communities of Mexico, Europe and South America has been under development for more than 20 years. The second is a photoessay about the pilgrimages and shrines of Mexico. In this work, he experiments with lomographic and pinhole cameras. The third project documents nomadic goat and camel herders in the deserts of Mexico and Western Sahara.  Finally, with El aliento de los Santos, he touches on the cosmovision of the Maya-Tzeltales of Tenejapa, Chiapas.

Lorenzo Armendáriz has obtained several distinctions among which the acquisition award at the VII Biennial of Photography (Mexico 1995), the El Habanero Award at the Biennial of Contemporary Photography La Llave del Cerro and the first prize at the III International Salon Abelardo Rodriguez Antes (Havana, Cuba in 1995). In 1998 and 2009 he won third place in the photography category at the Concorso Artistico Internazonale Amico Rom, Lanciano, Italy. In 2006 he won the Documentary Award of the China Folklore Photographic Association, Beijing, China, and the Acquisition Award "Manuel Ramos" State Fund for Culture and the Arts, San Luis Potosi, SLP. In 1992 he won 1st place in the XII Anthropological Photography Contest of the ENAH. In 2018 he received recognition for his career as a guest artist at the Festival Internacional de la Imagen (UAEH).

His work has been exhibited in Mexico, United States, Cuba, Colombia, Peru, Austria, Romania, Finland, Spain, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovakia, Kenya, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria, Turkey and Serbia.

His work can be found in collections at the National Library of Paris, La Fototeca de Cuba, the Ronald Margolis Foundation in Arizona, the Them Romano Association in Laciano, Italy, the Fototeca del INAH, the Centro de la Imagen, the Fototeca Nacho López del INPI and the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo. He is a member of the National System of Art Creators (FONCA) since 2003.