The exhibition Paz Errázuriz: Coleções Fundación MAPFRE, held at the Instituto Moreira Salles (IMS) in São Paulo, Brazil, presented a major retrospective of the Chilean photographer. Errázuriz’s career began during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, a period in which she photographed different and rarely represented marginalized groups. From individuals confined to psychiatric hospitals, transvestites, performers of precarious circuses, prostitutes and even amateur boxers, each black-and-white portrait captures a gripping story.

The concept behind the exhibition and communication design was to arrange the framed photographs floating on the white walls and guide visitors with green-sided totems that served as markers for each body of work and contained all the exhibition texts. The same green color was used for the lettering on the exhibition’s opening wall–the only one without photographs. To reinforce the reference to printed texts, the exhibition’s visual identity adopted a serif typeface.

The exhibition was scheduled to open on March 17, 2020. However, when everything was ready, the IMS had to close its doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After months of waiting, the exhibition was finally opened to the public, running from October 13 to December 23 of that year.

Instituto Moreira Salles, 2020
Photos: Renato Parada/IMS