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The Photography Biennale, which has been taking place at the Centro de la Imagen for over twenty years, is one of the oldest and most established juried exhibitions in Mexico. When it was conceived, in the 1970s, it was about validating photography as a medium of art practice. It was the brainchild of a group of combative photographers who strove to open up a space for the medium, which was denied entry into the juried shows organized at the time by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA). During that period, photography was one of the categories of the Bienal de la Gráfica (Graphic Arts Biennale), with only about thirty photographers participating. In 1980, thanks to the advocacy of the Consejo Mexicano de Fotografía and other important agents, the INBA created a biennale especially for photographers. Since the Centro de la Imagen opened its doors in 1994, it committed itself to organizing this national contest, which over the years has become a nerve center for the medium.
The Biennale is a unique opportunity to survey the current state of photography as it features the work of artists from various parts of the country. The massive response to the call for submissions this year—629 portfolios were received—speaks of the milieu's ebullience and reveals photography to be one of the most important languages of current art practice. The concurrent evolution of technology has led artists to explore a wide range of formats, printing styles and exhibition devices; as such, we at the Centro de la Imagen tried to make it very clear in this year's call for submissions that we were interested in examining such things as audiovisual installations, digital manipulation, image appropriation, photography books, etc.
This Biennale reveals the rich diversity of photographic practice, not only in terms of its artistic and sculptural potential, but of its narrative and documentary possibilities; it shows that the artists using this medium—which was originally deemed only able to "mimic the real"—as skillful builders of subjective, dreamlike, lyrical and/or abstract worlds.
When I became director of the Centro de la Imagen, it seemed to me that it was essential to lend continuity to the Photography Biennale. And yet, times have changed: though it was once important for photography to carve out its space as a new medium of art making, today we are subjected instead to a superabundance of photographic images in every sphere of daily life, while the medium has also become a dominant one in art practice. This is why we must strive to understand current issues in photography in order to review, synthesize, select, edit and even properly channel the works submitted. Moreover, it has been said that there are too many biennales nowadays and that this type of exhibition has somehow undermined the art world. We thus found it was time to review the Biennale's guidelines and procedures in order to make sure it continues to be relevant.
One of the qualities of an open call for submissions is that it is an inclusive, democratic process. The jury's deliberations and decisions were entirely independent from the host institution. The five-member jury of artists and critics made a first selection of pieces by looking at all the digital images submitted. Then a second session took place to determine which works received a prize or honorable mention. The selected photographs are presented in an exhibition and a catalogue is published. But the art world is not usually ruled by such democratic processes, and what counts instead is such criteria as uniqueness, originality, novelty or transgressiveness. It seemed to me that more risks could have been taken, that some works could have been championed and others questioned more energetically, but that the mechanisms to do this sort of thing were not in place.
I thus felt that a reflection on the work presented was needed, not in terms of the selection of who won or not, but in the form of a curatorial dialogue. The Biennale must function as a showcase for photographic practice in Mexico and establish mechanisms for the artists involved to gain greater exposure; it must help them become familiar with each other's work and create networks for them to work with public agencies and specialists. In this Biennale, it seemed important to me not just to showcase the winning entries, but also to delve into who's doing what, how the works relate to each other, or how certain tendencies arise and evolve, etc. This is why we asked two members of the Biennale jury to work as curators and to each organize an exhibition based on the selected works. The rules were made more flexible, as our intention was to establish a more direct dialogue with the artists. The works submitted were reviewed once again and other works by the originally selected artists were added, work by artists that had initially been rejected was incorporated, and pieces were even included by artists who were invited as special guests.
Two versions of the 16th Photography Biennale will thus be on view. One is curated by photographer Mauricio Alejo and will be shown at two venues, the Centro Cultural Clavijero in Morelia and the Centro Cultural Acapulco. Alejo belongs to a generation of photographers who have developed a very personal language, and in this sense, it was not difficult for him to identify with the approaches of younger photographers. We also invited curator Magnolia de la Garza, with her broad understanding of contemporary art discourse and the international art scene, to undertake a second interpretation of the material, which will be shown at the Fototeca de Nuevo León—part of the Centro de las Artes de Monterrey—and at the Museo de Arte de Sinaloa (MASIN). Each venue has implicated different challenges in terms of exhibition design, and each exhibition entails a different way of understanding the works and of inserting them into a specific context, as readers will see in this catalogue.
I would like to very especially thank Reynold Guerra, director of the Centro de las Artes de Monterrey, Alejandro Rosales, director of the Centro Cultural Clavijero, Minerva Solano, director of the MASIN, and Jeanette Rojas, director of Galleries and Art for the Secretaría de Cultura de Guerrero. I wish to thank them for their willingness to get involved and enthusiastically lend their spaces to this project at a time when the Centro de la Imagen is closed due to renovations. It is essential for the Biennale to gain exposure in other areas of the country outside Mexico City.
I also wish to thank Mireya Paniagua Vega, director of the Colección Coppel, and the eminent photographers Maya Goded and Eniac Martínez, for their uncompromising work as jurors. Finally, I would like to sincerely congratulate the prizewinners, María María Acha-Kutscher and Fabiola Menchelli, those who received an honorable mention Alejandro Almanza, Ramiro Chaves and Fernando Montiel Klint, and also express my appreciation to all the other individuals who participated in and collaborated on this Biennale.