Secrets between the Branches. Cristina Kahlo & Maciejka Art. until 21 december 2024. TOBE Gallery, Budapest – Hungary

The exhibition “Secrets between the Branches” features the latest works of Maciejka Art and Cristina Kahlo, which reflect on the interactions between humans and nature through their photographic approach. Maciejka Art, of Polish origin, has lived in Mexico for seven years. During this time, she has focused her interest on the José María Morelos community, a small Afro-descendant community in Oaxaca, and the power of nature. A key motif in her works is the local medicinal plant known as Hoja Santa, which is commonly used in both cooking and traditional Mexican medicine.

Cristina Kahlo, born in Mexico City, has been working on a series for the past four years that reimagines the mythological story of Daphne and Apollo from Greek mythology through her own visual lens. In her photographs, trees form the central axis, creating a new narrative style that she has titled “Crecí a la sombra de los árboles.” The works of both Art and Kahlo are characterized by a mix of different techniques, with interventions such as collage and the recoloring of black-and-white photographs extending the imaginative world of the exhibition. The pieces highlight the everyday presence of human-nature interactions while also revealing a feminine universe with diverse symbolic layers.

Cristina Kahlo (Mexico City, 1960) is a photographer, and as the granddaughter of Frida Kahlo’s sister, she has strong ties to the visual arts through her great-grandfather and father. She first learned about the analog techniques that still define her visual expression in her father’s photo lab. Kahlo’s artistic practice spans both artistic and documentary photography. In 2006, she was awarded the Bartels Foundation Scholarship in Basel in recognition of her work, which allowed her to explore new artistic directions and exhibit extensively in both Mexico and Europe.

Alongside Kahlo’s new works, the exhibition also features pieces by Maciejka Art (Łódź, 1983), a Polish-born photographer who lives in Mexico. In 2022, she won the LUMA Rencontres Dummy Book Award at Les Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles, the world’s most prestigious photography festival. This award enabled her to publish her book “Hoja Santa” and present it in exhibition form at the 2023 festival. Maciejka’s projects span from documentary photography to fine arts, and her works, which explore themes of femininity, diversity, and migration, reflect her multicultural background. Between 2017 and 2023, she worked on various projects in Mexico and participated in numerous artistic residencies and international exhibitions. In 2017, during her stay in Afghanistan, she filmed a documentary for the Emergency organization. Her work has been published in various international magazines, including Vanity Fair, Elle Decor, and Vogue.