“I remember being shocked the first time I saw a transvestite. I must have been seven or eight and I was at the main market in Acapulco with my aunt when I saw ‘him’. He was standing outside a fruit stall, with curly hair, very dark skin, muscular arms, electric blue eyelids and red lips. — Come on in, beautiful, he said to my aunt. I don’t know which bothered me more, his voice or his body. — What is he? I asked my aunt. — A boy-girl, she said laconically. My questions stopped there. This series is the result of my fascination with cross-dressers. Their ability to turn themselves into incredibly beautiful women is just stunning. With implants they can give their bodies new shapes, and with wigs and makeup they feminise their appearance. Who are they, ultimately? True women, or utopian ones? ‘Vestida’ is the Mexican word for transvestite. By showing them undressed – ‘desvestidas’ – always against the same neutral backdrop and with the same framing, I simultaneously lay bare their masculinity and play on the notion of gender duality. I have fun with clichés through very explicit images. ”
Biography:
Luis Arturo Aguirre was born in Acapulco, Mexico, in 1983. He began taking pictures when he was seventeen, using a Minolta X-700 given to him by his uncle, and went on to study contemporary photography at the Centro de la Imagen in Mexico City in 2011. Raised on pop culture and kitsch, he has built up a body of work fuelled by music, the movies, painting and characters spotted in the street. A prizewinner at the 15th Photography Biennial in Mexico City in 2012, Luis Arturo Aguirre lives and works in Acapulco.
FESTIVAL
5th Edition of PhotoQuai
Devestidas
Luis Arturo Aguirre
Curator : Claudi CARRERAS
Until November 22nd, 2015
In Front of Quai Branly Museum
37 quai Branly
75007 Paris
France
http://www.photoquai.fr
