Familia tells a personal and intimate story of my grandparents’ exile from Ecuador to Cuba in the 30’s and of my own personal exile to Spain 15 years ago. The work starts with a portrait of the four members of my family (my two children and my wife) made from tailoring patterns, a contemporary portrait that obviates the photographic description to focus on the actual measurements of each body, evoking festivities and moments of mourning with the gesture of measuring a body. A second moment transcends the family sphere to take the form of a portrait of very close friends, also in exile. 38 people from a very small circle have been measured and portrayed through sewing patterns, each one of them has had a suit designed for them, and has been invited to form part of this social and critical “party” that is art.

To close the proposal, more than a thousand patterns from different bodies of local people, cuencanos, have been incorporated into the work, forming a group voice and a portrait of contemporary emigration, which has had such an echo in Ecuador in recent years. Cuenca being a city of tailors, the work appropriates this tradition to speak of the movement of people, of emigration, exile, abandonment, economy, death and rebirth of this own and constructed Family, who, in the need and search for new lives and futures, find and shape new experiences and social and cultural links.

Installation view at XVI Bienal de Cuenca, Ecuador, 2023

Photo: Ricardo Bohórquez