The photographic exhibition entitled "Tarot" officially begins on March the 22nd, at a photography school in Málaga (Spain), Apertura. The photographer Pepa Babot began planning this project in 2016, which has taken several weekends to finish it. The exhibition closes on 21 May.
Pepa Babot was born in Madrid, when she was young, she studied analogical photography, and then learned digital photography at the Apertura school. According to Pepa, for various reasons, she has not been able to work on portrait for a long time, and this project has allowed her to return to her favorite field, and go out of her work routine, which has helped her to find more inspirations in order to present the works in the best way.
The school has two floors plus a basement, the exhibition takes place on the first floor, when entering, you can see the pictures hanging on both walls. A total of 22 photography exhibitions, each picture has a simple paragraph of descriptions contributed by 22 famous writers and poets from Málaga. The exhibition begins with a introduction written by Guillermo Busutil and a show by Cristina salvaje.
Within all the cards or paintings, there are 14 male figures, among them is the soldier of the Lovers, and the rest are women, including a girl from the Star card. People from different ages, races and social status are brought together because of this project.
The exhibition can reach us, not only because of Pepa Babot's creativity, but also because of the people who have offered their generous help. Silvia Jiménez Esteban for example, who designed the front of the box, the cards and the booklet of the deck. The titles of all the cards are in English, but in the brochure they are translated into Spanish.
Among many works on display, I especially like the card of the Fool. This one has presented us an elder with a lot of innocence. An old man with balloons and flowers, things that have no resemblance apparently, but they are the perfect combination of tarot symbolism and its meaning, while not losing the artistic sensation. The flowers represent the nature, the sunlight and the vitality, and the globes is innocence or childhood. The man with worn cloth, like the figure of the tarot, who is a free being.
In addition to these praiseworthy works, there are some details that have failed us. First, the author does not make out the tarot system. In the introduction written by Guillermo Busutil says that this exhibition is inspired by the Tarot de Marseille, but Justice has the number 11 and Force number 8, while the booklet switches the numbers. (In Tarot de Marseille and other ancient systems, Justice is No. 8, and Force, No. 11) it may be that the system does not matter to the photographer, rather she focuses on the meaning of each card, but that the current exhibition does not correspond with what they put in the booklet is a pitiful mistake.
While enjoying the exhibition, we ask ourselves: Why is this person representing this card and not another? This is just the magic of this work. The photographer invites us to discover meaning on our own, and turns us visitors into tarot readers, offering us this mystical but enjoyable tool to experience the universe and the mystery of humanity. The school also offers a deck of cards of limited edition 30 copies, with the works of the exhibition, this is the most visual part of the whole project. It costs 50 euros. (not worthing buying for the errors and cheap card stock)
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