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Gabriele Sciotto is an Italian photographer.
After completing a degree in photojournalism at the REA in Rome, he began his career assisting. He is now focusing his documentary practice between social issues and cultural heritage. Having a preference for the very essence of socially accepted behaviour and its peculiarities, he works on long-term analysis to carry out deep and thoughtful projects. Gabriele’s work has been featured in the New York Times, the Guardian, Time,
BBC, CNN, La Repubblica, and Il Corriere della Sera among others.
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Mail. hello@gabrielesciotto.com
EXHIBITION TEXT
Aquí estamos en el centro de los días is a photographic project by Italian artist Gabriele Sciotto, who has been living in Oaxaca for several years. The exhibition explores his documentary and poetic interest in the Días de plaza (Market Days) in the Central Valleys region of the state. His photographs pay homage to those who inhabit the markets and whose work sustains local economies.
The Días de plaza are a system of commercial rotation with origins in pre-Columbian tianguis (from the Nahuatl word tianquiztli), which transform a traditional market into the center of regional trade on specific days of the week, attracting vendors from various municipalities. According to this system, Miahuatlán holds its market on Monday, Santa María Atzompa on Tuesday, Villa de Etla and Zimatlán de Álvarez on Wednesday, Zaachila and Ejutla de Crespo on Thursday, Ocotlán on Friday, Oaxaca City on Saturday, and Tlacolula on Sunday, while in Teotitlán del Valle, the market operates daily.
Traditional markets are complex social spaces where commercial activities intersect, particularly in agriculture, livestock, and artisanal goods. They are also crucial sites for cultural and linguistic exchange among Oaxaca’s Indigenous communities—the state with the highest number of Indigenous languages spoken in Mexico—reflecting a vast cultural and identity-rich heritage.
The title of this exhibition references a phrase from the short story La semana de colores (The Week of Colors) by Mexican writer Elena Garro. As a whole, the photographs incorporate the dreamlike quality present in that narrative, capturing moments of beauty, tenderness, and contemplation while also depicting the stark realities of the daily trade of animals and meat for human consumption. The images convey the contrasts and hardships of life in these spaces.
As part of Aquí estamos en el centro de los días and under the same name, Gabriele Sciotto presents a fanzine published in Oaxaca in collaboration with Erandi Adame. In this publication, he establishes a direct dialogue between Garro’s story and the moments he captured in traditional markets throughout 2023. Since the beginning of his career, the artist has focused his photographic practice on documenting various social issues and cultural heritage. His work has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, Time, BBC, CNN, La Repubblica, and Corriere della Sera.
This exhibition setup seeks to create a unique atmosphere, offering an alternative to the rigid formality of the white cube. The images displayed invite us to weave stories and invent new ways of narrating them, as if the visible reality within them were merely a bridge to fantastic possibilities.
Nidia Rosales
Oaxacan Curator,
Specialist and Master in Art History, UNAM.
TEXT ON WALLS
-Por la noche
su casa iluminada resplandecía
como la flor naranja
sobre la trenza negra del Jueves.
-At night
her illuminated house shone
like an orange flower
on the black braid of Thursday.
- Ya no hay días...
¿A dónde se fueron?
There are no days anymore...
Where have they gone?
- Confunden los días.
Están embrujadas...
They are confusing the days.
They are bewitched...
https://www.free-counters.org/