The photograph hidden by Tina Modotti at the centre of a conference in Udine

Udine is preparing to host an event of great cultural importance dedicated to Tina Modotti , the “most famous Friulian in the world”. On Friday 6 June , Professor Gianfranco Ellero will hold a lectio magistralis that promises to shed new light on the photographs exhibited 96 years ago in Mexico City.

The meeting, organized by the Pro Loco Città di Udine , will be held at 5 pm in the Sala Margherita of the Hotel Là di Moret, in via Tricesimo. It will be a unique opportunity to delve into the career of Tina Modotti, whose first and only personal exhibition, inaugurated on December 3, 1929 in the UNAM Library in Mexico City, was defined by the Mexican painter and muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros as “the first revolutionary photographic exhibition in Mexico” .

The event, entitled “ Homage to Tina Modotti ”, is the second in a series of annual meetings dedicated to the artist. As anticipated by Marco Zoratti , president of the Pro Loco Città di Udine, the event will bring some insights into the photography knowingly hidden by Tina herself in the famous shot that portrays her in front of her works. Precisely regarding the installation, in September 1929, Tina Modotti wrote to the American photographer Edward Weston, her teacher and friend: «it will be almost a duty to show not what I have done, but what can be done here». This sentence encapsulates the essence of the vernissage that soon after established itself as a milestone in photographic art. With her distinctive shots, her masterful use of black and white and her sharp eye, Modotti created a watershed in the vision of the world and in its narration, managing to capture the reality that presented itself objectively in front of her camera, combining immediacy and experimentation.

As Professor Ellero anticipated, that exhibition was a crucial moment for the photographer to expose "what she felt was important" , in a period in which she feared having to leave Mexico due to the new political conditions, which in fact happened in 1930. It is no coincidence that among the 60 shots on display, the heroic image of her beloved Julio Antonio Mella, co-founder of the Communist Party of Cuba and a key figure in the revolutionary movements of Latin America, stood out, assassinated on January 10, 1929 just as he was returning home with Tina.

The event is sponsored by the Municipality of Udine and is included in the UdinEstate 2025 calendar. It was made possible thanks to the invaluable support of: Confesercenti Udine , Arlef – Agjenzie Regjonâl pe Lenghe Furlane , Società Filologica Friulana , Friuli nel Mondo and the Nonino distillery .

Top photo: “Tina Modotti in front of a section of her exhibition in the atrium of the Biblioteca Nacional de la Universidad Autonóma de México. Mexico City, December 1929 Cinemazero Archives – Pordenone”

Gianfranco Ellero , historian, essayist and journalist, was Secretary of the Friulian Philological Society and President of the Friulian Plastic Arts Centre. Born in Fraforeano on 23 October 1937 and an honorary member of the Friulian Philological Society, he is recognised for his profound knowledge of Friulian memories and his experience in the field of photography. Biographer of important figures such as Pier Paolo Pasolini and Dora Bassi, Ellero is one of the major international scholars of the life and art of Tina Modotti, to whom he has dedicated numerous studies and publications.