The photography exhibition Beyond the Silence opened in Mexico
From December 13 to 27, 2024, the exhibition Beyond the Silence was held at the Foro Rebollar (Proyectos Públicos) in Mexico City, presenting 11 participants in the project. The main goal of the project was to explore the connections between five countries — Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Nigeria, and Myanmar — by creating a dialogue between photographers and visualizing their stories, experiences, and reflections on common issues.
During the exhibition in Mexico City, 11 international photo art projects dedicated to the themes: “censorship,” “territories,” “kidnapping,” and “struggle and/or adaptation” were presented. This project was organized by Magnum Photos in partnership with the Odesa Photo Days Festival (Ukraine), Centro de las Artes de San Agustín (Mexico), Proyectos Públicos (Mexico), African Artists’ Foundation (Nigeria), Vlast. Internet-journal. (Kazakhstan) and Angkor Photo Festival & Workshops (Cambodia) with the support of the Open Society Foundations and the Ukrainian Institute.
Among the participants were four Ukrainian artists: Sasha Kurmaz, Mykhailo Palinchak, Darya Svirtilova, and Iryna Lupu. In addition, Lara Garcia from Mexico, Rafal Milach from Poland (Magnum Photos), Fawaz Oydzhi from Nigeria, Nyusha Tavakolyan from Iran (Magnum Photos), Sai from Myanmar, Yadykar Ibraimov from Kazakhstan and Thomas Dvorak from Germany (Magnum Photos). The exhibition was made in such a way that visitors had the opportunity to get acquainted with current problems in Ukraine, Nigeria, Mexico, Myanmar, and Kazakhstan and, at the same time, to draw parallels between different stories and compare them with their own.
The curator of the project and exhibition in Mexico was Kateryna Radchenko, founder of the Odesa Photo Days Festival in Ukraine.
The opening was attended by ambassadors of embassies in Mexico, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia, representatives from the Turkish Embassy, the Deputy Head of the EU Mission, and the Director of the Eastern Europe Department of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition to the exhibition, there was a curatorial tour for the guests, which led to an active discussion of the works.
The exhibition was supported by the International Renaissance Foundation with the assistance of the Cultural Diplomacy Foundation.
About Magnum Photos
Magnum Photos is an international photo agency that aims to distribute reportage photographs in the press. It was founded on April 27, 1947, in Paris at the initiative of Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Roger, and David “Chima” Seymour. The reason for the creation of the photo agency was the desire of photographers to preserve and protect the rights to personal photographs and to have a central office. The agency’s employees are well-known professional photojournalists, mostly from Western Europe and America.
In 2004, the agency launched a new project called “Magnum in Motion.” The project embodies a multimedia form of presenting photographs. A team of photographers creates a story essay, namely a slideshow of photos with sound and an interview with the photographer.