Renata Montenegro
(Mexico City, 2001)
Visual artist and documentary photographer. Her work explores in a symbolic and poetic way stories that originate from a personal basis. Through visual metaphors she creates images that appeal to an emotional sense and that allow her to deepen in the aftermath of the perception and construction of individual and collective identity. In such way, her work constitutes a space that manages to reflect and question social and autobiographical aspects.
Women Photograph Mentorship Class
United States 2023
Grant for residents in Mexico for Proyecto Imaginario in collaboration with Centro de la Imagen.
Argentina 2023
Femgrafia Online Residence Scholarship
Latinamerica 2023
Online Editing Workshop by Gisela Volá
Argentina 2023
Writing training for the creative process by Santa Talleres
Argentina 2023
National Geographic 2023 Young Explorers Fellowship Nomination
Latinamerica 2023
Master’s Degree in New Documentary Photography at LaBasad
Spain 2021-2022
Career in Professional Photography by Escuela Activa de Fotografía
Mexico 2020-2022
Collective student exhibition by Escuela Activa de Fotografía
Mexico 2022
Femgrafia’s virtual exhibition “Habitar”
Latinamerica 2021
Scholarship for documentary photography program by Escuela Activa de Fotografía
Mexico 2020
Selection and publication of photographs in the book “JPGBook”.
Spain 2020
My projects
Home for a zopilote
(on going)
“Home for a zopilote” is a photographic project that is built in collaboration with other women in my community about the practices of witchcraft and takes Mariana’s testimony as a starting point. A story that is intertwined with the experiences of the rest: A woman from Mexico City who has found in witchcraft a way of survival in the face of domestic violence to which she was subjected for 10 years.
Given the state of emergency that not only Mexico City but the country (Mexico) is undergoing due to the crisis of gender violence, witchcraft becomes a meeting point “from recognizing each other in experiences of pain” (Ileana Diéguez), but is pain the only thing that calls us to share a space?
The project seeks to question the historical narrative that exists around witchcraft in order to think of it not only as a series of practices that derive from wisdom, but as a space from where resistance, desire and longing act from the magical.
Through visual metaphors and with the help of the image intervention, the project explores other communication systems based on imagination and affection as mobilization gestures within contexts of violence. Referring to Sara Ahmed’s text “The cultural politics of emotions”, how are experiences, sensations and emotions politicized? From which places are they enunciated? How do we approach other forms of reparation and resignification?
zopilote: from the Náhuatl, a bird native to Latin America used by witches as a symbol of protection.
The crack of the land
(on going)
“The crack of the land” is a tribute to my grandparents’ house, which for a long time was a place of refuge for people both close and unknown to me. However, places like this become loud absences after the loss of youth, collective rituals and closeness.
We tend to believe that we are immune to time. However, the intimate territory serves as a revelation that shows us aging. Spaces become extensions of our corporeality that anticipate us almost like a sixth sense that something is dying.
This project investigates the mourning that comes from aging through the territory, since space seems to be anchored to time. From an intuitive and emotional sense, the images question: How does one inhabit a space that is dying?
Contact
Renata Montenegro, Mexico City
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