About the Book

The Laboratorio de Teatro Campesino e Indígena: A Half Century of History, from Lourdes Grobet, is a book that maps the trajectory and experiences of a communitarian, mass, indigenous, and rural theatre, operating across Mexico since 1983, and a posthumous homage to its founder, María Alicia Martínez Medrano. In accordance with its beginnings and objectives, the LTCI has offered to many marginalized communities, the instruments to develop, value and enjoy their own artistic language, traditions, theatricality and the integration of their rituals into this language with a profound sense of dignity. This volume traces the group’s history through critical essays alongside photos by Lourdes Grobet.

Arles 2023 Historical Book Award Winner. 

Published by Editorial RM

Lourdes Grobet (1940-2022) was born in Mexico City and studied visual arts under the mentorship of Mathias Goeritz, Kati Horna, and Gilberto Aceves Navarro. Grobet eventually discovered photography and started experimenting with the medium, which eventually led her to study graphics and photography at the Cardiff College of Art in Wales. Upon her return to Mexico in the late 1970s and following her drive to work from a community-based perspective, Grobet joined collectives such as Club Fotográfico de México (Mexican Photography Club), Grupo Proceso Pentágono and the Consejo Mexicano de Fotografía (Mexican Photography Council). One of the photographer’s most distinctive projects was capturing lucha libre (freestyle wrestling), including iconic wrestler El Santo. Grobet also created in theater, film, and video and that work can be found in collections and museums such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Mexico City and the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris.