MAPI presents “Christs & Crystals,” the first solo exhibition by photographer Víctor Cunha, a series of images taken in La Recoleta Cemetery (Buenos Aires), where light, stained glass, and the passage of time meet in a poetic tension between beauty and decay.

The photographs were taken on August 4, 2023, in one of Latin America’s most emblematic necropolises. In that space of memory, Cunha documented the stained-glass windows of abandoned burial vaults, many of them left without maintenance, with broken doors and cracked walls. Despite the neglect, the glass remains surprisingly intact, capturing and reflecting sunlight with a moving chromatic intensity.

As the poet Washington Benavides expressed: “They were like untouched flowers, resisting and displaying their message amid the chaos,” evoking verses by Washington Benavides.

From about a hundred shots, the artist selected twelve photographs, a number that symbolically refers to the Stations of the Cross, thus forming a kind of spiritual journey guided by the constant presence of light.

Unlike the monumental stained-glass windows of cathedrals, designed for broad audiences, those of these vaults were intimate, almost secret, intended for an occasional family setting. In that same secluded spirit, Víctor Cunha presents this collection of images as a tribute to the persistence of art, even in oblivion.

“Christs & Crystals” is presented with:
• Nancy Urrutia as patron of the exhibition
• Curatorship by Gillermo Baltar Préndez
• The support of Bernardo Paz (Galería Nikon, Madrid)
• ⁠Design by Fran Cunha for the original promotional pieces
• Photographs printed at Saficolor, Madrid, on Fujicolor Crystal paper
• Framing by Aquarela

📍 MAPI – 25 de Mayo 279, Montevideo
🕓 Visiting hours: Monday to Saturday, 10:30 am to 6:00 pm