Regiones Remotas

Following the theme of "Tierra Incógnita" (Unknown Land), the following project seeks to represent the history of Peruvian and South American women. The colonialist patriarchy has written our history and mapped our land. My present as a Peruvian cis woman is constructed with the stories of the past conditioned by the patriarchy of white supremacy.

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What personalities do we decide to remember as part of our collective history? How did they define and relate to their times? How do they shape our community in the present?

Men have been shaping our history, making themselves the main characters. It is necessary to change how we look at our territory to see some women appear. But, which are the ones that become present? 

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In these two maps, I’ve included the photos of women who have contributed to our gender collective history. Most of them are known personalities in their respective country. Other ones are unknown. Paraguay, Suriname, and French Guiana’s pasts have been swallowed by the history of South America’s bigger dominant countries. In the case of Guyana, the only women that popped up were victims of Jonestown’s massive suicide. I also decided to include some women’s groups important to the social rights fight like ANFASEP and the mothers of Plaza de Mayo. The photos are printed on hand-dyed fabrics. The homemade printing technique I used makes some of the images really blurry making impossible to distinguish some of them. 

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Regions, where diverse memories are absent from our history, are portrayed. The Paracas ringed knitting, a pre-hispanic technique that has been lost over the years, traces these areas. This technique connects the individualistic photos, creating a unified territory of texture and color. The Paracas ringed knitting speaks of memory. A diverse group of women is depicted in knitting. 

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And one question remains: to what extent would we have to keep changing how we look our space to fully unearth the untold history of the peripheral regions?