THE URBAN VISION OF YOLANDA ANDRADE, AT MEMORIA
By Álvaro de Benito
MEMORIA gallery presents cedemequis, a solo exhibition offering a journey through the photographic production of Yolanda Andrade (Mexico DF, Mexico, 1950). The show focuses on her record and observation of the urban and the everyday in Mexico City, emphasizing the tension between the ordinary and the extraordinary, and acknowledging the individual value of what stands apart within the collective.
The exhibition invites viewers to step into realities that lie outside the usual frame of the urban landscape, offering glimpses into the complexity of the city’s geography and demography as living elements that construct a renewed image. Andrade’s works reflect the actions of a photographer who perceives public space as a realm of intersecting interests—collective or personal—where individual purposes generate a shared terrain infused with art, activism, expression, and social tension.
Her images distance themselves from a romanticized notion of the city, setting aside idealized iconography to approach a kind of magical or fantastical realism that helps shape a different imaginary. This new way of looking at the urban context opens up fresh possibilities for analysis.
Drawing on her knowledge of the history, social events, and cultural dynamics of the Mexican capital, Andrade constructs this proposal by incorporating marginalized and often invisible elements, helping to reveal a whole in which resistance, resilience, and adaptation each play a role.
cedemequis can be viewed until February 14 at the Centro de MEMORIA, Piamonte 19, Madrid (Spain).

