In order to problematize the preconception according to which crafts hold pure ancestral identities and craftspeople are anonymously responsible for keeping this material culture alive, I invited a group of producers from different guilds of the region of Cuenca to collaborate with me. Considering that their work is an articulation of manual skill and personal style with the limits set by a technical and cultural collective tradition, I proposed to analyze the oscillation between these two scales that coexist in their methodology. The works produced by each one of them were based on the idea of subverting the traditional parameters that rule their craft and to strengthen the gestures where their had and will become manifest.
When seen as anomalies, these objects, unlike the most representative evidence, reveal not the regional cultural legacy, but a cultural unconscious where the individual stands out beyond the normative methods and forms. The anomaly best reveals and questions the norm, as it only exists in relation to it.
Three tables of forged metal
and wood
35.1 x 39 x 78 cm each
Objects of diverse materials
and measures
Contributors:
Blacksmiths.- Segundo and Iván Gallegos (Taller Forjando Futuro)
Straw.- María Amay, Ilda Sánchez, Alexandra Zamora and Sra. Margarita (Asociación de Toquilleras María Auxiliadora)
Copper.- Marco Machado (Taller Ahuacuna)
Bricks.- José Ángel Tacuri y familia, Pancho Albarracín, Román Contreras and son.
Stone.- Julio (Taller de piedra Roca Dura), Héctor Efraín Parra (Taller Los Picapiedra) and Antonio Cortés
Loom.- José Jiménez and Ana Ulloa
Wood carving.- Servilio Sarengo
Produced by the 12th Bienal de Cuenca, Ecuador