Álvaro Laiz | Artista multidisciplinar y fotógrafo documental

The hunter explores the Udege belief in Amba, the spirit of the Amur tiger, through a fateful 1997 encounter between a poacher and a tiger seeking vengeance. This narrative of strategy, instinct, and retribution illustrates the Udege’s animistic worldview, where nature’s forces demand respect. Set in the boreal forests of the Russian Far East, The Hunter reflects on shamanistic traditions and the profound connection between the Udege people and their environment. Supported by Fundación Cerezales and Magnum Foundation.

The edge traces humanity’s ancient migration across the Bering Strait during the last Ice Age, a time when Siberian hunters traversed the shifting landscape of Kromka, the bridge between Asia and America. Integrating evolutionary biology and visual art, the project unveils our shared heritage of migration and memory. Spanning from the Bering Strait to Tierra del Fuego, The edge bridges traditional cosmogonies and genetic research to reflect on identity and our profound connection to land.

Winter´s Memoriy delves into the dehesa, an ecosystem that defies binaries, thriving in the liminal space between wild and domesticated. Álvaro Laiz examines symbiosis as a force that reshapes biological, cultural, and spiritual evolution, inspired by Lynn Margulis’s vision of humans as “walking communities.” Through his work, Laiz invites viewers to question the boundaries of nature and humanity, fostering a dialogue between earthly and sacred, human and non-human intelligences, and exploring continuities across time.

Winter´s Memory is a commissioned project by Fundación Campocerrado as part of its I artistic production residency grant.

Wonderland captures the resilient cultural identity of the Warao people in Venezuela’s Amacuro Delta, where traditions have endured despite colonial pressures. Central to this project is the recognition of Tida Wena, individuals who transcend traditional gender categories, echoing the “two-spirit” roles once respected across Indigenous societies. These pre-Columbian beliefs, now endangered by acculturation, may be among the last expressions of an ancient understanding of gender, documented here for the first time.

Transmongolian, the secret history of the mongols, explores the complex legacy of Mongolia’s The secret history of the mongols, which chronicles the rise of Genghis Khan and reveals a cultural backdrop where shamanism intersected with social norms. Eight centuries later, homosexuality remains taboo, with LGBTQ+ individuals facing repression and seeking refuge abroad for acceptance and identity. Through this lens, Transmongolian reflects on tradition, modernity, and the persistent struggles of Mongolia’s marginalized communities.

Atlantes delves into the perilous lives of Galician fishermen along Spain’s Coast of Death, a rugged landscape marked by shipwrecks and fierce Atlantic waves. For centuries, economic hardship has driven locals to risk their lives harvesting percebes—a delicacy thriving where sea and wind are most violent. Through visceral imagery, Atlantes captures the fishermen’s daily encounters with danger, underscoring the enduring human bond with the ocean and the sacrifices woven into this tradition.

Fosil explores the decline of coal mining in northern Spain, a once-thriving industry now facing extinction. Through an archaeological lens, the project documents fossilized Carboniferous remains, the miners’ lives, and their tools, now relics of a vanishing culture. Fosil juxtaposes the economic shift rendering mining unviable with the enduring cultural legacy embedded in this landscape, aiming to preserve a way of life on the brink of oblivion.
Fosil is a commissioned project by Museo Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC).

I was never really there examines memory as a shifting, virtual theater, where childhood recollections reside between past and present, reality and imagination. Through an introspective journey, the artist navigates the hidden connections between his 1984 self and his 2022 self. Created for Obscura’s The world today, this NFT project draws inspiration from Edward Steichen’s The family of man, using blockchain to archive global imagery and redefine photographic boundaries in the web3 era.

In 1997, a Russian poacher named Markov stumbled upon the trail of a massive Amur tiger. Despite the risks involved, Markov interpreted the tiger’s footprints as a promise of a better life. He fired a shot at the tiger but failed to kill it. The Udege people believe that if someone attacks a tiger without justification, Amba, the spirit of the tiger, will relentlessly pursue retribution. Unexpectedly, Markov had unleashed Amba, the darker aspect of the tiger.

Over the next 72 hours, the animal relentlessly tracked down Markov and ultimately killed him. Subsequent investigations suggested that the tiger planned its movements with a rare combination of strategy and instinct, and most notably, with a chilling clarity of purpose: Amba sought revenge.

The Udege people have inhabited the Boreal Jungle for centuries, and their deep connection with nature has infused their beliefs with references to supernatural forces that demand reverence.
This animistic belief serves as a guiding theme to understand the profound influence of nature on Udege communities within one of the few remaining bastions of shamanism: the hunter’s culture of the Russian Far East.

The Hunter is a project developed with the support of the Magnum Foundation and Fundación Cerezales (FCAYC).

The hunter

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