The Distance Between Mountains and Memory
Cory Zimmerman | Chiapas, Mexico
Photographer: Cory Zimmerman
Exhibit Title: The Distance Between Mountains and Memory
Location: Chiapas, Mexico
The southern Mesoamerican mountains form a landscape deeply intertwined with memory, especially for Tzotzil-Maya communities near San Cristóbal, Chamula, Zinacantán, and beyond. From this cultural center, the project explores how the land’s physical features—cloud forests, fields, slopes, village streets, and volcanic peaks—shape community perceptions and stories through the passage of time.
To the Tzeltal people, to look toward the new year is to aim for the mountain’s peak. Living in this vertical world, the reality of time is carved into the earth, with the past forming the foundation upon which it stands, and the future a destination to climb toward. The Chiapas highlands ascend time with the growth of corn, as the cycle of the season turns, and the heavy burden of generations—rulers and the ruled—merges into a single, revolving life rhythm—a ritual journey that circles the boundaries between the mythological and the present. In the highlands, the landscape is not merely a backdrop for Maya history but the physical embodiment of time itself—layered, recurring, and forever uphill.
cz@czstudio.works
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