JOIN USUnravelling the code of belief, faith and conviction
In the confines of an underground hall at Instituto Cervantes, it is just not the monochromatic and larger-than-life frames that compel you to stay back, it’s the life, the characters in them that prods you to dig a little deeper into their stories, their culture, and faith.
In the exhibition titled ‘The Believers’, the Spanish photojournalist Jordi Pizarro freezes in time the expressions of faith across the globe.
Flickering across the walls through projectors are images from India, Poland, Jerusalem and Cuba. Even in an empty hall, these images conjure up the visuals of the animated, silent, mystical or lively streets of these countries through the eyes of the photographer.
Collated from Jordi’s on-going long term project, these images belong to a body of documentary work that explores religious communities in 10 different countries across four continents.
The photojournalist’s work also captures the Kumbh Mela from India. The images of sadhus, and the long serpentine queues around the river bring forth the expanse of the pilgrimage in Allahabad. While these are few of the images that one definitely feels an instant connect with, there are others that arouse curiosity.
For instance, the image of a woman walking on her knees to the summit of the mountain Grabarka in Poland where pilgrims carry thousands of wooden crosses and the mystical images from Jerusalem where pilgrims hold candles at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, believed to be the burial site of Jesus Christ, during the ceremony of the Holy Fire, inspire the viewer to look-up on these traditions.
The exhibition, true to its essence, highlights Jordi’s quest to explore the question: Why do people believe, and how has religion, through the ages, been used to narrate the purpose of our existence, stimulating a volley of questions inside the mind of a viewer.