Mexican cultural values on display in Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): A buxom woman, with a seemingly dead chicken in hand, walks past a wall splashed with blood. A girl in a heavy gown with hair to her waist walks with outstretched hands, one with a transistor in it, toward a desert area amid the hills of Sonora, Mexico.

The blood on the wall may spell out ritualistic gore; and the transistor-holding girl, beauty, or even signs of modernism, but this is far from what is depicted in the works of professional Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide.

The same goes for pictures by Mariana Yampolsky, the late Lola Alvarez Bravo and Collette Alvarez Urbajtel, the three other Mexican female photographers whose works are being exhibited at the Antara Gallery of Journalistic Photos on Jl. Antara No. 59, Central Jakarta.

The exhibition of Mexican cultural values by four contemporary Mexican women photographers was opened Tuesday by Minister of Education and Culture Juwono Sudarsono.

A Mexican Embassy and Antara Gallery collaboration, the exhibition features 60 black-and-white photographs and will run to Aug. 4.

Its opening was attended by Mexican ambassador Sergio Ley- Lopez, head of the Antara news agency Parni Hadi and diplomatic figures, including Palestinian ambassador Awad Riddhi and Peruvian ambassador Elard Escala.

Sergio noted that the theme of the exhibition, Humanisme Creole-Mestizo (Humanism of the Mexican Heritage), was born of the Mexican Revolution, headed by the then minister of education and culture Jose Vasconcelos.

"The revolution, brought about by the people's spirit and fueled by educational programs and art works, was meant to preserve and promote old Mexican values considered dirty and low," Sergio said.

"The photographers have captured the soul of the Mexican people."

Professional photographers Tara Sosrowardoyo and Firman Ichsan, who attended the opening, described some of the photographs as "emotive".

Firman said that he enjoyed Yampolsky's photographs the most.

"Call me conservative. Her photographs remind me of classical paintings but with a very different feel," he said.

"Situations in her photographs have that quality of alienation. The characters seem to be caught in their own worlds."

Of all the photographs, Lola's are most classical, he added.

Tara, accompanied by wife Marina Mahathir, said one of his favorite works was Iturbide's Angel Woman.

"I saw a very strong image when I first came in, Iturbide's work, which is on the invitation. That's one of my favorites."

"She has captured the mood, the moment and the position of the woman holding the transistor. One of those things that is spellbinding." (ylt)