Graciela Iturbide. Eyes to Fly With

The first major retrospective of Graciela Iturbide in Berlin presents approximately 250 works spanning more than five decades of photographic work. The exhibition documents the development of a visual language that combines documentary observation with personal reflection.

The works are organized around central themes: Iturbide's photographs of the Zapotec people in Juchitán, Oaxaca, capture a social structure in which women hold economic and public positions. Photographs from the 1970s of the nomadic Seri community document everyday moments. The long-term project White Fence begins in 1986 in East Los Angeles and follows Mexican-American Cholo culture over three decades.

Further work series engage with ritual and death: La Matanza documents ritual animal slaughter in the Mixteca region. Casa Azul photographs personal objects in Frida Kahlo's house. Rarely shown photographs were created during travels to India and Bangladesh.

The exhibition presents vintage prints, contact sheets, and color photographs, revealing a shift from socially contextualized work to increasingly introspective engagement with transience. The tension between tradition and modernity runs throughout the work.

A collaboration with the Berlin Botanical Garden complements the exhibition with plants from various Mexican biotopes.