Miguel Bergasa (Pamplona, 1951) has undertaken four journeys through time in the last thirty years, the four visits he has made to the Mennonite colony of Nueva Durango, in Paraguay. The artist presented this Wednesday at the Museo Universidad de Navarra the exhibition Mennonites of Nueva Durangowhich portrays the way of life of this religious community that lives anchored in the 16th century. In the presentation he was accompanied by Rafael Levenfeld, artistic director of the Museum, who highlighted the "magic eye" of the artist "who sees beyond what many people are capable of".

The exhibition, produced by the Museum, brings together 40 photographs that show different scenes of the life of this colony in their homes, in the fields, at school and traveling the roads of the area with their wagons. Scenes in the church are left out of the camera, since he was not allowed to take pictures inside the church. The exhibition is completed by the projection of the documentary film Una patria lejos del mundo. Menonitas de Paraguay (1988), which he made with the cameraman Enrique Urdánoz and the journalist Alicia G. Montano. It was broadcasted in the program Documentos TV of Televisión Española.

"I have the feeling of traveling back in time," explained Bergasa. He also detailed some aspects of the austere and monotonous life of the colony. The Mennonites belong to a Christian current that emerged after the religious split led by the Anabaptist bishop Menno Simons - from whom they take their name - in the 16th century, during the Lutheran Reformation in Europe. According to their principles, sin is found in progress, so they renounce all kinds of comforts of the present time.

Their history began in Holland, Switzerland and Germany, from where they left for Russia and from there they fled to the United States and Canada. They are currently established in small colonies in Mexico, Belize, Bolivia and Paraguay. "In the countries where they settle, they negotiate three privileges with the governments: not to perform military service, to keep their language (Deitsch, an ancient dialect of German) and their teaching schools, where they read the Bible, the only book to which they have access."

Bergasa has explained that, in addition to obtaining permission from the head of the colony, he had the support of one of its members Jacob Wall, thanks to whom he was able to gain access to the interior of Mennonite homes. This man was expelled from the colony for his progressive ideas and currently lives near Asunción, capital of Paraguay. "He lives like us, with WhatsApp, Facebook... I have contact with him. I would have liked him to be here because this work would have been very difficult without his help," says the artist.

About the exhibition, the artist has also explained the challenge of standardizing different photographic supports, from the slides he worked with at the beginning of the project to the current digital support. Thus, the images are shown in the same way and there are no temporal identifications.

Other activities related to the exhibition have been scheduled. This Friday, at 11:45 a.m., there will be a guided tour by the artist accompanied by journalist and writer Javier Reverte. At the end, Reverte will give a lecture, Traveling to tell the story, in which he will share his experience as a traveler and storyteller about this exhibition. In addition, on Saturday 27, from 10:30 to 13 h., will be held the children's workshop My first trip, aimed at children between 6 and 11 years. The price is 6 euros.

The Museum has also published a catalog of the exhibition (80 pages, 24 euros) in which the works are shown and the artist himself writes a travelogue in which he tells the story of his four visits to the colony. It also includes a text by journalist Alicia Gómez Montano.