Al tejer redes todos los hilos cuentan / When weaving nets all threads count

My work is nourished by elements of the vernacular language of a place. The project arises from the exercise of chronicling the narratives of the social, cultural and economic fabric of the contexts where I arrive and which I interact with. The base material collected is then fragmented, synthesized, intermingled, and abstracted in paintings, collages, murals or fabrics, without losing its relationship with the initial reference. The processes to which I submit the base material allude to those that social groups and the territory go through.

This project takes into account the local economic reality of the Aguaje el Zapote community in the coast of Oaxaca. The main sustenance comes from the Manialtepec Lagoon, through fishing and tourism that comes to see the local fauna and the lagoon’s bioluminescence. This implies that most of the knowledge about local nature revolves around this lagoon. From an inventory of the main diversity of the Laguna Manialtepec and some representative elements of the community, I developed a series of simple sketches, and translated them into clay drawings/cut-outs. This forms where then installed on the main wall of the municipal office, which is the administrative center of the community and the backdrop for the activities that take place there. The community —mostly children — participate by making clay pieces that would later be installed and colored with chalk.

The title “Al tejer redes todos los hilos cuentan” (“When weaving nets all threads count”) comes from a Chinese proverb. It alludes to the local fishing activities and their endangered communal way of life. The recent accelerated real estate developments going on in the area has placed economic development over the lives of its inhabitants and the environment in which it stands.