The Bats’i Lab Collective
at Pointe-à-la Croix
EXHIBITION
Beyond the Thresholds
Bats’i Lab, San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico | www.batsilab.org
The Bats’i Lab collective is composed of the following photographers:
José Ángel Rodríguez, Berriozábal (Mexique) | www.batsilab.org/la-ley-de-la-gran-reciprocidad
Magali Alanis Rodriguez Beaudoin, San Cristóbal de Las Casas (Mexique) | magaliarodriguez.format.com/#1
Isaac Guzmán, San Cristóbal de Las Casas (Mexique) | www.batsilab.org/isaac-guzman
Pablo Farías, San Cristóbal de Las Casas (Mexique) | www.batsilab.org/pablo-farias
Diego Moreno, San Cristóbal de Las Casas (Mexique) | www.instagram.com/diiegotv
Barry Norris, San Cristóbal de Las Casas (Mexique) | barrynorrisstudio.com
Marcey Jacobson (1911-2009), San Cristóbal de Las Casas (Mexique)
Maruch Sántiz Gómez, San Cristóbal de Las Casas (Mexique)
This group exhibition, drawn from Bats’i Lab’s Chiapas reference collection, explores how we represent wandering and its place in the history of this territory. Here, wandering is understood as a circular movement: moving forward without breaking from the past, returning without ever being quite in the same place.
For some artists, it takes shape through the act of walking: forced displacements of communities in conflict, and the paths of migrants crossing land and water (Guzmán, Rodríguez). For others, it takes on a ritual and spiritual dimension, through participation in processions and the observation of patron saint festivals and evolving carnivals (Norris, Farías). Moving through the city, exploring each threshold and opening (Jacobson), becomes an act charged with memory, passed down from generation to generation.
In Chiapas—a territory marked by colonial legacy and patriarchal violence—photographing these places, bodies, and beliefs from a local perspective becomes an act of reclaiming (Moreno, Sántiz Gómez, Rodriguez Beaudoin).
In this region shaped by resistance, to move forward is already to resist. Each photographer presents a lived and interpreted fragment of history. Together, these perspectives form a plural and embodied vision of contemporary photography in Chiapas.
This exhibition is the result of a partnership with ESPACIO MÉXICO Montréal.
EXHIBITION AT RENCONTRES
Beyond the Thresholds
Bats’i Lab is a collective founded by Pablo Farías, Isaac Guzmán, José Ángel Rodriguez, and Magali Alanis Rodriguez. It explores the cultural and social dynamics of Chiapas through photography. Founded in 2019 in San Cristóbal, its center brings together a collection of artists, a public library, and a workshop dedicated to analog processes. The collective has presented around twenty exhibitions in Mexico and internationally.