Teacher, curator and art critic from Alicante Isabel Tejeda By chance, in 1996, I came across an article Tina Modotti (Udine, 1896 – Mexico City, 1942) While working on Alicante painters with a research scholarship in Rome. Almost thirty years after that love photographer and political activist -which it was actress in Hollywood and brigadier in Spain, where he edited city wind by Miguel Hernández The police station is the largest exhibition of his figure, Tina Modotti. L’oeil de la révolutiondescending on Jeu de Paume contemporary art museum From Paris, specializing in photography, approx. 300 images From museums and collections from around the world.
Sample produced by Mapfre Foundationopened in the center Barcelona KBR I went on a trip last year and then Foam photography museum in Amsterdam, until a few days ago. The exhibition opens on Sunday at the Jeu de Paume to a limited audience with the French Minister of Culture in attendance, and opens to the general public on Tuesday; It will stay there until the end of June, and that’s where Tejeda is most excited to be seen. «I don’t believe it yet. “It’s a nuisance in Flanders,” says the curator about his third work with the Mapfre Foundation, in which he proposes to investigate Tina Modotti and whom it concerns. He presented his first project in 2019.
“IT difficult This exhibition was supposed to happen original images, nostalgicnot modern copies and the important thing is that 85% of the works “These are originals printed in the 1920s,” explains Tejeda, noting that they include images borrowed from the United States. New York MoMA and San Francisco (SFMOMA), Mexico’s MUNAL or Televisa Foundation, among other institutions. In addition to nearly 300 photographs in the exhibition, two family albums And magazines Modotti’s book published as a supplement to the facsimile edition of the Gil-Albert Institute city windHE self-edited poetry collection A page from 1937 Visit to Alicante Italians reflected in Ayuda magazine and the praise given in Mexico after that premature death from heart attack.
«Modotti went to the United States when he was 16 years old. He was an actor in Hollywood and with the help of Edward Weston, the photographer moved to Mexico and interacted with members of the Communist Party, where he developed his political activism,” explains the curator. In the 1930s he lived in Moscow, Berlin and ended up in Spain.where does it meet Miguel Hernández, María Teresa León, Machado or Alberti and where he had a “very important role” as a brigadier general in the Civil War and from Red Socorro.
Although the photographs in the exhibition correspond to post-revolutionary Mexico (in Spain he abandoned photography and devoted himself to political engagement), Tejeda is “very clear” that: «between one and three images related to city windunidentified ones, They could be his.”person defined as «photography worker» Surrendered to the war in Spain. His photographic works highlight his “humanity” in his gaze and the “dignity” of the poor he reflects in his photographs.
Next projects
The exhibition will remain in Paris until June and beyond will probably travel to Mexico, where your journey will end. Among her next projects, Isabel Tejeda will attend ARCO in March as curator of a booth featuring three Spanish artists. Soledad Seville Queen Sofia I was going to curate an exhibition in October. Alfonso Albacete in Murcia.