‘Open-Mouthed’ is a black and white retrospective journey, created in 2014 for the Centro de Arte Tomás y Valiente (CEART). It offers a different view of one of the most expressive parts of the human body—the mouth—an expression of the full spectrum of emotions: anger, joy, fear, or happiness. This is the first solo exhibition in Bulgaria of Cristina García Rodero, one of the most popular Spanish women photographers, and the third visit of the artist to our country. In 2015, she worked on a theme dedicated to the Kukeri in Pernik.
Cristina García Rodero is one of the most celebrated documentary photographers in Spain and the first Spanish woman to become a full member of the Magnum photographic team. Over the years, she has progressed through various stages, most of which related to projects exploring specific rituals, customs and groups of people throughout the world. Her photographs are impressive, provocative, arousing curiosity and emotion. The themes are always beyond the scope of the already familiar.
An artist by education, Cristina is a self-taught photographer. She began at the age of 23 with photographs of various religious and pagan customs in Spain, collected in 1989 in her book, España Oculta, which won the ‘Book of the Year Award’ at the prestigious Arles Festival of Photography. Then followed years devoted to travelling, in which this Spanish woman, attracted by different cultures, used her camera to explore them as a counterpoint to the modern, fast-paced world.
The artist’s portfolio includes photographs of Baracoa, the first village in Cuba, founded 500 years ago; documented moments from the local way of life and voodoo rituals in Haiti; war scenes from Russia, Georgia and South Ossetia during the 2008 conflicts; nude portraits of porn actresses in Barcelona; religious customs of India. In 2001, she participated in the Venice Biennale with her project from Haiti, ‘Maria Lionza’.
FOTOFABRIKA is a platform for photographic events for the general public. The festival presents photography as an art and a social interzone, part of the contemporary urban cultural environment.
