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While studying and living in Athens, Georgia, it can be easy to let the histories of other countries fall from the mind.
However, the Georgia Museum of Art has and will continue to bring a reminder of cultures within and outside of the Athens community.
The “El Taller de Gráfica Popular: Vida y Arte” exhibit captures the years of turmoil during and surrounding the Mexican Revolution, while the “¡Viva México!” film series comprised of both dramas and documentaries shows these years in motion and explains them in depth.
The exhibit is ultimately a presentation of the "El Taller de Gráfica Popular" or TGP, which translates to the Workshop for Popular Graphics. Through printmaking, the workshop worked for social justice during the Mexican revolution, according to the museum’s Communications Director Hillary Brown.
“Leadership before and during the revolution was basically one [corrupt] person after another, so the concerns of the Revolution were mostly greater rights for the poor and democracy,” Brown said.
As a leftist group, the TGP’s printmaking efforts extended to many issues that touched Mexico including war and communism, according to Curator of Education DiCindio. Its efforts also extended to fascism in Europe, the developing post-war New Deal economy and later African-American civil rights in the United States, according to the Georgia Museum website.
The workshop therefore examines both the internal and external influences to the development of present-day Mexico.
All of the films show great artistry, but the more technical documentaries serve to be informative while the other films like “¡Viva México!” show many aspects of Mexican film and literary culture of past and present, according to Associate Curator of Education Callan Steinmann.
On Thursday, July 31 at 7 p.m. in the M. Smith Griffith Auditorium, “María Candelaria” directed by Emilio Fernández, will be shown. This film represents the more creative side.
“It was captured by [cinematographer] Gabriel Figueroa, who is someone who kind of represents the Golden Age of Mexican film,” Steinmann said. “It won the Grand Prize and Best Cinematography at the Cannes Film Festival, which is definitely a big deal.”
Although “María Candelaria” is a romance, this story of a farmer and a daughter of a prostitute in love also features issues such as classism and plague in the form of malaria.
“[‘Maria Candelaria’] definitely shows the tensions that were there between the peasant farmer class and the elite, and other issues that stems from poverty and illiteracy,” Steinmann said.
Another such film in the series, “Macario” directed by Roberto Gavaldón shown in July discusses poverty, greed, acquisition of wealth, and Inquisition through the classic Mexican artistic method of mystical realism.
The PBS documentary “The Storm That Swept Mexico” was shown on July 16, and due to its popularity it will be shown again on August 13. The documentary discusses the Mexican Revolution in great detail.
“’The Storm That Swept Mexico’ was definitely successful,” DiCindio said. “People really liked that one, which is why I’m glad we decided to show it again.”
DiCindio and Steinmann stressed that the exhibit was a collective effort. In fact, the film series required work with the Consulate General of Mexico in Atlanta Ricardo Cámara Sánchez in order to get permission from Mexico to be able to show some of the films.
“We spoke with [Sánchez], with the [Latin and Caribbean Studies] Institute and with some Athens-Latino communities to put this all together,” Steinmann said.
The museum was even graced on July 9 by a visit from Octavio Blanco, a coproducer of one of the of documentaries “An Artful Revolution: The Life and Art of the Taller de Gráfica Popular.”
“He talked some about the movie and the historical context, and that contributed even more to the educational experience,” DiCindio said.
The “El Taller de Gráfica Popular: Vida y Arte” exhibition will end on September 13, and the “¡Viva México!” film series will conclude at the Georgia Museum with a panel-style discussion on Aug. 20.