Tina Modotti was at once worker, revolutionary, migrant, and exile, and shot some of the most iconic photographs characterising the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1917). Modotti’s photograph Falce, Pannocchia e Cartucciera (1928) belongs to one of the photographic series shown at the only solo exhibition to take place during her lifetime, held at the National Library of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in 1929. Capable of intersecting formalist photography with revolutionary politics, the images juxtapose items evocative of Communist militants and workers: sickles, bandoliers, guitars, and corn. The exhibition was widely commended by the press and figures such as the muralist Siqueiros, who proclaimed it “the first revolutionary photographic exhibition in Mexico”. Other works on show included photos named after the articles in the Mexican Constitution dealing with labour rights and land ownership. Just weeks after her exhibition, Modotti was deported from Mexico for her dissident activity and alleged involvement in the attempted assassination of President Pascual Ortiz Rubio.
This is the first time the work of Tina Modotti is presented at Biennale Arte.
—Sofia Gotti
