Emilio Payán: Pictodigitography by Teúl Moyrón Contreras

C

ódice Re is a proposal by Teúl Moyrón Contreras (1963 CDMX) that, through images, invites the viewer to reflect on the world we inhabit and the reality that surrounds us. With his camera, he captures reality and transforms it into a story that illuminates the dark corners of society, challenging the viewer to see beyond the surface and to examine the vanishing ecosystem and the society that is becoming homogenized in an environment where the oversaturation of digital images envelops us in a fog of triviality and indifference.

The exhibition promotes a shift in perspective and awakens the viewer's awareness. Codex Re is a labyrinth of digital images that encourages us to decipher the secrets underlying reality. Each photograph is a puzzle that, when solved, reveals the exact point where reality merges with fantasy, creating a dreamlike landscape that prompts us to reconsider the nature of what we see and what we imagine. Moyrón, like a tlacuilo (a Nahuatl term referring to those who write by painting), paints with light and shadow, creating a visual language that speaks to us of resistance and opposition to silence.

He acquired his first camera when he won a Duncan spinning top competition, supported by his mother, Josefina Contreras, an English teacher at Escuela Nueva Technical Secondary School, directed by Guadalupe Bonfil. With this German camera, Moyrón was able to freeze time and begin his career in photography.

At the request of the Organization of Indigenous Doctors of the State of Chiapas (Omiech), Teúl created the Color Photographic Archive of Medicinal Plants of the Chiapas Highlands in the 1990s, an innovative project. To fund it, he proposed creating a calendar with images of medicinal plants and a parallel photography exhibition, with the goal of selling them and supporting the initiative.

In collaboration with the Omiech, they also developed a bilingual medicinal plant recipe book in Tsotsil and Spanish, an achievement that became the first recipe book of its kind since the Codex Badiano (a 16th-century herbal treatise). This project highlights the importance of preserving and sharing the wisdom of Indigenous communities. Known in Tsotsil as Poxil Ta Vomoletik or The Midwives' Recipe Book , it is a legacy of ancestral wisdom in traditional medicine.

In his book Mutaciones (2016), published by the University of Guadalajara, Moyrón unfolds a visual tapestry that reflects change and transformation, inspired by the ancient wisdom of the I Ching . Each photograph is a visual hexagram that reveals the mysteries of existence through mutating images that reflect the complexity of reality. In this context, Moyrón suggests that what we look at looks back at us, and that our perception of the landscape is actually a two-dimensional interaction.

Teúl Moyrón is a self-taught photographer, museographer, university professor, farmer, and experienced user of the Chinese oracle book. He lives with his partner, Cecilia, in Tlalnelhuayocan, Veracruz, on a plot of land within a preserved cloud forest bordering the city of Xalapa.

Codex Re will open on Friday at the Luis Cardoza y Aragón gallery of the Bella Época Cultural Center of the Fondo de Cultura Económica. The exhibition features 44 images printed on cotton paper, photographic paper, wood, metal, and acrylic.