Henket's 'Birds of Mexico City' Redefines Gender at Bildhalle
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- Pieter Henket created the 'Birds of Mexico City' photographic series with stylist Chino Castilla, staging portraits in a Mexico City studio to portray people redefining gender, identity, and self-expression.
- The series is exhibited at Bildhalle, Amsterdam until 8 August, with a companion book published by Damiani.
- Portrait 'Tatuajes' shows Tania wearing a Virgin Mary dress that was deliberately built to cover her full-body tattoos; Henket says concealing them made the image more powerful.
- Ixchel appears in 'La Mujer' wearing a lucha libre wrestling mask, which Henket describes as her reclaiming a symbol of masculinity in Mexico's 'strong macho culture.'
- Jossafat, a straight gymnast, is photographed in leopard print and kitten heels — Henket states the project is 'not only about queer kids. It's about anyone who simply dares to be themselves.'
- Poet Melón is captured in 'Niñez' wearing both a football kit and a dress, referencing machismo culture's pressure on Mexican boys to play football.
- 'El Sabucán' transforms woven plastic market bags — everyday objects Henket says people rarely notice — into a sculptural garment, framing overlooked street culture as art.
Why it matters: By featuring a straight male gymnast in kitten heels and a poet in a football kit and dress, Henket explicitly broadens the project beyond a queer-only narrative, arguing the series is about anyone 'who dares to be themselves' — a framing that gives the Amsterdam exhibition and Damiani book international visibility for a generation of Mexican self-expression that mainstream coverage often reduces to a single identity category.
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