Lo que nos imagina (What imagines us)

A series of analog photomontages created from photographs of the December 12th pilgrimage to the Basilica of Guadalupe engages in a dialogue with a selection of images from the artist’s family archive. Both series are structured around the figure of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the pilgrimage as a space where memory, community and a form of belonging is constructed.

Beyond merely portraying religiosity or popular devotion, Villegas is interested in the figure of Guadalupe as a cultural mechanism capable of gathering bodies around a shared symbol. Through this collective movement, the pilgrimage generates meaning and activates both familiar and collective memories, revealing the capacity of certain symbols to foster community and continue acquiring new meanings over time.

The story of the Virgin of Guadalupe can be read as the story of a figure in constant transformation. Over the course of more than five centuries, various communities have adopted and reinterpreted her, projecting their own narratives of belonging onto her. Her power lies precisely in this ability to shift between contexts and meanings without being exhausted by a single interpretation. This accumulation of meanings is also reflected in the photomontages, created through multiple exposures made directly in a medium-format camera, where fragmentation, layering, and assemblage allow different temporalities to coexist on the same surface.

Another fundamental aspect of Villegas’s work is distance. After living outside Mexico for more than three decades, the artist places photographs of the pilgrimage in dialogue with his family archive. This encounter raises a question about how we continue to construct a sense of belonging when the country is no longer experienced solely as a territory, but also through the images we preserve of it.

Lo que nos imagina (What imagines us) proposes a reflection on the role images play in the construction of memory and the sense of belonging. Rather than merely representing a community, these images actively participate in its creation: they forge bonds, envision collectives, and offer us frameworks through which we continue to imagine and inhabit the idea of ​​Mexico.

Andrea Bustillos Duhart
Curator