CCE Miami presents: "La Bestia" (The Beast) by Isabel Muñoz
The Centro Cultural Español, CCE, Miami, presents “La Bestia”, an itinerant exhibition that emerges from a personal project by Isabel Muñoz. It gathers the documentation of the three trips that she has made during three years along the Southern border of Mexico.
The Spanish photographer got on the freight train that illegal immigrants call ¨ The Beast¨, accompanied by the Salvadorian journalist Oscar Martinez, to tell their stories.
Muñoz traveled the Mexican territory towards the United States, between Arriaga (Chiapas) and Ixtepec (Oaxaca). "You have to feel the beast under your legs to know what these migrants feel" explains Isabel Muñoz, one of the most important Spanish photographers whose work is notable for finding beauty among the tough reality: “Women start taking the pill before starting the trip, the American dream”.
Along with the photographs there are projections of videos made by the Mexican artists Andrés Olivera and Eduardo Villalobos, who also accompanied Isabel Muñoz in her last journey.
The exhibition describes the journey of the migrants from the perspective of Isabel Muñoz and his companions. Human relations and personal stories give shape to a map that is drawn not only from the migrant’s perspective but from those who observe and do not belong to this transitional territory.
The exhibition aims to generate three levels of perception and understanding. The first level is generated through the photographic selection that considers the contextual description of the territory and the situation developed from the experiences in the train. The second level considers the audiovisual images took by Andrés Villalobos and Eduardo Olivares. Including the audiovisuals in the exhibition encourages the spectator to experience a different rhythm showing the travels by train along the Southern border of Mexico. The third level provides data and gives tools to the spectator for a wider understanding of the migration phenomenon.
Isabel Muñoz (Barcelona, 1951) lives and works in Madrid since 1970. With over 20 years of professional experience, her lens has traveled half of the world, after her first major exhibition in the Month of Photography in Paris in 1990. There have been numerous books about her work as a photographer and her photographs can be found at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, the Houston Contemporary Art Museum and private collections, among others.
She has done excellent work for the Spanish newspaper El País, as the one published on Maras and Gangs in Central America "Violence Tattooed." Considered one of the best photographers in Spain, in her role as reporter, she is a regular contributor to the most brilliants specialists copied to Platinum. She has been recognized with numerous awards, among them the World Press Photo (43th and 48th edition) and the Gold Medal at the Biennale of Alexandria.
