Today Mexico celebrates la Virgen de Guadalupe, Our Lady of Guadalupe. In a previous post published a few years ago we looked at the story of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary on Tepeyac Hill near Mexico City to Juan Diego, an Aztec Indian, in 1531.
In that feature we looked at how the image of Our Lady miraculously imprinted on Juan Diego's tilma, inspired fashion and accessory designers.
The cloak of Juan Diego is on display behind the main altar in the new Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City and it is venerated by millions of people from all over Mexico and the world. But the Virgin of Guadalupe, also known as "Mother of the Americas" and as the "Queen of Mexico", has inspired also artists.
In 2009, Mexican-British artist and visual anthropologist Alinka Echeverría worked on a project revolving around the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Entitled "The Road to Tepeyac", the project combined photography and social anthropology as the artist chronicled the Christian pilgrimage to Tepeyac, Mexico City, taking pictures of the pilgrims from the back.
All the pilgrims carry on their backs an image of the Virgin, printed, painted or embroidered on banners, rectangles of fabric, backpacks and so on. In a few cases the banners become part of their attire, almost cloaks reminiscent of Juan Diego's tilma. Some of them even carry large framed images of the Virgin Mary, wooden statues in glass cases or secured on their backpacks.
The project began after a visit to the Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico City during the anniversary of the apparition of the Virgin: brought up in a secular home, while looking at the pilgrims the artist started questioning the relationship between image and belief and wondered why these pilgrims carry these image for ten days to the original site or elaborately decorate them.
The images are first and foremost visually striking as each pilgrim pays homage to the Virgin in their own personal way, so you find it intriguing to look at the colourful images and at the various ways in which that person decided to celebrate the Virgin Mary.
But then you realise there is more behind those photographs and those banners and religious icons: most pilgrims are pictured standing, a couple of them are walking on stilts, some walk on their knees, a man even carries a child on his shoulders while walking on his knees. In one case the framed image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is so large that almost entirely hides the pilgrim carrying it. The images therefore assume other meanings, as they instantly prompt you to think about pain, sorrow, repentance, hope and gratitude.
Besides, the pilgrims' journey is not just about faith, but it is also about anthropology and paganism: 12th December, the date in which the Virgin of Guadalupe is celebrated is very close to the indigenous celebrations of winter solstice and the new year.
Last but not least, the project decontextualizes the pilgrims as each of them is pictured on a white background. In this way the pilgrims stand out, so that viewers can focus on the objects they carry and on that individual's relationship with the Virgin, with faith and religion.
Yet in exhibition spaces, the images are part of an immersive installation with the pilgrims displayed one next to the other to allow viewers to reintegrate that single pilgrim in a wider context and question in this way historical, political, philosophical, psychological and anthropological issues and explore the relationship between invisible presence, intangible faith and material objects and icons.
"The Road to Tepeyac" won the 2011 HSBC Prix Pour La Photographie, an annual prize given by the HSBC Cultural Foundation in France, and a triptych of archival pigment prints from this series is currently part of Sotheby's sale entitled "Boundless Space…The Possibilities of Burning Man", exploring the works that have emerged from Burning Man's culture.
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