The daily life of Cangahua is summarized in 120 photos in the exhibition ‘Sisay warmi, women who flourish’

Six walls of the Cumandá Urban Park are decorated with 120 photographs that tell the story of twelve women from Cangahua parish, Pichincha province.

To create this exhibition called Sisay warmi, women who bloom –honored on February 18– twelve emerging photographers explored the field of kangahuaone of the oldest parishes in Cayambe Canton, home to the twelve women who dominate these lands with pride and courage.

There the twelve photographers felt the texture of the earth, the perfume of the plants, the murmur of the streams, the symphony resulting from the mixture of the effect of the wind and the different sounds of animals. They received the blessing that it means for a photographer to see and discover in some cases the pastel blue of the dawn, in other cases the mist that floats like bits of cotton over the trees and fields, and in other cases the golden lines that emerge come from the other side of the mountains as the sun rises. But they also experienced the cold of the Andean dawn that penetrates effortlessly to the bone.

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Cumanda city parkin which it is housed photo exhibition which will remain open throughout March, opened its doors in 2014 and, as a meeting place for various communities, is part of the daily life of the neighbourhoods. It stands on the site of the old Cumandá bus stationopened in 1986, and after 23 years (2009) its activities ended due to insecurity and neglect.

The twelve photographers who built this exhibition were part of the Dolores Cacuango Residence, diverse and different women, born a year ago as part of a project by the photographic collective SolipsisArt, with the idea of ​​transforming the work of rural women to survive. “During the pandemic, we had what we ate, but we didn’t know where the products came from, so that’s the basis that motivated this project,” he says. Carla MartinezMember of SolipsisArtof the Association of Ecuadorian Photographers (AFE) and lecturer of the Residence Dolores Cacuango.

The Dolores Cacuango Residence won the call for the Institute for the Promotion of Creativity and Innovation (IFCI). After winning the prize, they launched a national call to participate in the project. Nearly a hundred emerging photographers applied and selected twelve: ten from Quito, one from Guayaquil and one from Cuenca.

As a tutor, this experience makes my heart swell with pride, because the result is beautiful. As human beings it is nice to know that we are waking up, that we are appropriating ourselves, that through these spaces we know different feelings, a different kind of life. It’s great to recognize myself in a woman who works in the field, who has the same fears, the same dreams and lives a super strong life, says Karla, visibly moved, her eyes shining, as she looks at the photos on the website. wall.

One of the things we saw in the time we were able to share with these women is that despite the fact that field work is very hard and difficult, it is not valued or well paid, so men are forced to migrate to the city and most of the husbands of these ladies with whom we share work in Quito in construction and those who are in charge of the fields, animals, land, house and children are these women, says Karla.

Why are only women taking part in this exhibition?

The theme of the proposal is that it should be a residence created by women, for women and with women, because of the experiences that everyone has gained during their student and professional life. I think the spaces for women are limited and we were afraid for a long time, but these spaces are also revolutionary, so it’s like we’re making our revolution and appropriating walls by filling them with art. We have also not closed ourselves off to the fact that it is only for women, because then we will not get anywhere. The fact that we try to do things differently, that we want to set a benchmark, doesn’t mean we go against everything, that’s why we have men who support us, says Karla with a laugh.

My project is called Empress, is a photographic project that highlights the whole development of a rural woman, not just as a working woman, but as someone who nurtures the countryside and, through this process, feeds the city along with many other women. It identifies women not just as mothers and laborers, but as an entity installed throughout the universe that not only provides, cares for, and mothers children, but also projects like this, providing food, providing knowledge, providing things that are needed . do with the mother, Viviana Toapanta, exhibiting photographer, reflects.

Viviana teamed up with Luz Pilca, a peasant woman who was presented as an empress, for which the photographer found a peculiar way to tell her story, she did it with a tarot.

Luz Pilca was photographed sitting on a chair in the field, surrounded by flowers, grass and the mountains in the background; she represents the archetype found in the tarot, card number three. At the bottom are twelve cards divided into four essential aspects of the Empress.

The sentimental part representing the Empress of the Cups. The part of the internal fire as the Empress of Wands. The knowledge part as Empress of Swords and the economic aspect as Empress of Gold.

The Dolores Cacuango Residence was born with the intention of creating a breeding ground with emerging photographers who can then work for the visual image in different parts of the country and Latin America. It is designed with a focus on construction, personal growth and community projection Yinna Paola Higuera, director of the Ecuadorian Association of Photographers.

The residency is formulated with a methodology that includes three components:

The first has to do with the photographers, their personal development and their technical development, so that the technical part is not an obstacle to creation.

Secondly, the formulation of projects is being considered. We understand projects as solving questions about social issues through photography as a transformation tool. They learn to formulate projects, to find those questions and to find answers together through research, fieldwork with the community.

The third has to do with the dissemination of the work, bringing work they have developed to different audiences, but especially to the audiences that are relevant to the proposed question, bringing them in different ways, making them tangible and able to to share them with the same community and with different communities at home and abroad, Yinna concludes.

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