Photography as a way to get to know yourself and the world around you. That is the essence of Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide’s work. During this guided tour, a FOMU guide will take your class through her exhibition, showcasing powerful images that explore identity, social relationships, and transience. This tour can be booked by all secondary education programs.
Eyes to Fly With is the first major retrospective of the work of renowned Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide in Belgium. The title of the exhibition, Eyes to Fly With, is inspired by one of Iturbide’s self-portraits and refers to her vision of photography as a means of exploring both oneself and the world. For Iturbide, photography has an emancipatory quality, opening up new perspectives on reality.
In the exhibition, you will discover, among other things, the important societal and economic roles performed by women from the Zapotec community in Oaxaca. Graciela Iturbide breaks with traditional conceptions of gender by placing women at the heart of her work. In the series White Fence, she investigates how identity is a product of factors like ancestry, living conditions and migration, and how communities continue to evolve and adapt over time.
Iturbide depicts rituals, spirituality and the traditions that are a part of daily life – as in La Matanza, with its focus on slaughter and sacrifice, or her work on the Seri people. Also part of the exhibition are her intimate photos of Frida Kahlo's bathroom – sealed off, along with many of the painter's personal belongings, for fifty years after her death – and her rarely exhibited work from India and Bangladesh.
The exhibition has been developed in close consultation with the artist and comprises around 160 works, from iconic black-and-white photographs to rarely seen vintage prints, colour photos and contact prints. Together they offer a unique insight into over half a century of photographic work.
Practical information
- For whom? secondary education, for all majors. When making your reservation, please indicate the age, level and/or area of interest of the students, our guide will prepare the visit to your needs
- Duration: 90 minutes (1,5 hours)
- Max: 20 students per group
- At least one supervisor is required for every group of 15 students. Supervisors accompanying a school group are admitted free of charge.
- Two groups can start at the same time per time slot.
- Museum admission: free for secondary school students
- Period: from 18.09.2026 to 17.01.2027
What to expect?
- During a 1,5-hour tour, the guide takes the students through Graciela Iturbide’s oeuvre.
- The guide delves deeper into a selection of photographs and highlight the social context of the works.
- The guide encourages the students to look at the images critically and consciously and to reflect on current social issues.
- Students are given assignments to actively engage themselves.
Themes & competences
- Themes covered: photography, travel, image formation, power relations, representation, identity, history, social structures and relationships, Mexican culture, spirituality, tradition
- Key competences: physical and emotional awareness, social-relational, citizenship, historical awareness, self-awareness and self-expression, cultural awareness
- Relevant subjects: visual arts, citizenship, photography – video – film, behavioral and cultural sciences, history, philosophy of life, philosophy and moral sciences, PAV, Dutch, English, French
