Exposition

Ivan Alechine. Mexico Solo

For almost twenty years, Ivan Alechine regularly stayed in Mexico, with a predilection for the western Sierra Madre region which is none other than the domain of the Huichol Indians. Over the years spent in the village of Tuxpan de Bolanos, he got to know the everyday life and the rituals of those who call themselves the Wixárika, which means “the divine people”. He describes his approach as being “objective” collection, aimed at drawing up an inventory of the lasting nature of legends and traditions in a situation of economic disaster and growing acculturation.

Far away from the Sierra Madre, his lens faced the harsh contemporary reality of the Federal District of Mexico City. His photographs of buildings with meshed windows, corrugated iron roofs but also those portraits of young women forced into prostitution, bear witness to the human misery prevailing in that Mexico. Whether through writing, poetry or photography in this case, his work as an ethnologist is the driving force behind Ivan Alechine. And added to this is his way of looking at things like a visual artist and his interest in materials and textures that can be identified in the tactile aspect of some photographs.

Far from tourist photos, the exhibition Mexico solo – which includes 40 black and white photographs – is the vision of a Mexico wavering between beliefs and modernity.