How Brazilian Photographer, Lau Baldo's work became the iconic face of REFRACTION exhibition

This exhibition has a special meaning for me. Luckily I was given the opportunity to see the project before everyone else. I got in love for all the photos and points of view showing not only the cultural side of some parts of the world but also the resistance that varies from one place to another.

This story starts as soon as I left Brazil. I felt pretty much in need to help NGOs that work for our LGBTIQ+ community or that was ran by LGBTIQ+ people in my hometown Porto Alegre, Brazil. I left Brazil after spending over a month there. I saw Pose for the first time with some friends and that caused me a big impact to see the struggles trans people have to face every day from inside and outside of our community.

On my last day before leaving, I went to a LGBTIQ food bank to give a donation and asked if they knew any NGO for the Trans community in Porto Alegre and I was introduced to Ax Frangax.

Ax Frangax (The chicks) does wonderful work for trans artists in town. They were about to be kicked out from their place as they had 3 accumulate rents to pay.

Ax Frangax is a social group that through theater, stage, dance and trans history raise funds exclusively for the trans community in Porto Alegre and Region.

I asked friends around Malta for some donation to help them, and they managed to pay the amount needed. They showed me a wonderful photoshoot they made called trans bodies taken by the Photographer Lau Baldo. A trans man from Porto Alegre also. I kept that photoshoot in my mind and when I saw the project and that they would have a space to speak about trans I showed it to the organizers with no intention of having it displayed, and they loved it.

One of the photos won an award from Casa de Cultura Mario Quintana. A cultural centre in Porto Alegre, and one of the largest ones in Brazil.

It was not planned. It was all organic. That is what I love about it and I am proud it came from me. The twists of life. I am so looking forward to seeing people from the place I was born showing their Art in the place that adopted me with a lot of love.

I hope you all enjoy it.

By Carlos Severo Alves.

Read more about REFRACTION here

REFRACTION is a celebration of what is often unseen, glossed over, or misunderstood. A recognition that the ongoing fight for LGBTIQ+ rights is global. The platform travels beyond the West, and past homoerotic cliches and heteronormative bubbles that we are accustomed to; highlighting the multitude of experiences faced by LGBTIQ+ individuals from different parts of the world.

REFRACTION echoes a sense of strength, resilience, and power, illuminating every colour in the rainbow, and others.

Dates: 10 September 2021 - 24 October 2021

Entrance: Free

ARTISTS Samar Hazboun, Leart Rama, HUSS, Kristian Chalakov, Mohsin Shafi, Elle Conant & Roux Noel, Imad Zoukanni, Roxman Gatt, Robert Andy Coombs, Dirk H Wilms, Lin Zhipeng (aka. No 223), Daphne Sammut, Agataukoxxx, Noah Fabri, Lau Baldo & م ح س ن

CURATOR: Bobb Attard

COLLABORATORS iLab Photo Malta Soura Film Festival

Allied Rainbow Communities in association with HSBC.

This Event is supported by Pokerstars.