“Return to Liangshan” is an exhibition that brings together photographs taken by Buhamo Budi starting in 2013 in several counties of the Liangshan prefecture in Sichuan, the region with the highest concentration of Yi-Nuosu people, an ethnic minority of China to which she herself belongs. Budi is originally from Mo Ggu County, but she grew up two hundred kilometres away, in the capital of Liangshan, Xichang. Nearly her entire life unfolded far from her place of origin. Beginning with her university studies, she started travelling abroad, embarking on a journey that took her even farther away.

In the photographs selected for the exhibition, we see how Budi returned to the ancestral lands of her family and how she approached the people who continue to live there. Most of the photographs are portraits that Budi creates with the closeness of a family member. It is not an ethnographic or scientific vision, but rather the result of an intimate journey of rediscovery of her own roots.

From the large number of photographs Budi has taken over the past decade during her frequent trips to Liangshan, a selection of colour portraits has been chosen for this exhibition. The freshness of Budi’s approach to the portrayed subjects offers us a clear view of them, their attitudes, and their ways of presenting themselves to the world. Budi’s gaze lingers on those details of daily life in this community that moves fluidly between past traditions and the demands of contemporary life.

This return does not mark an end, but rather adds another stage to her life’s journey, joining the many returns Budi has made, is making, and will continue to make.