español

Absentia is a project that narrates a returning journey to my home country after being an immigrant in Canada for more than a decade. In 2003 I moved from Mexico. After many years of my relocation I came to the realization that I was learning about Latin America in a way I never did while living in Mexico. Most of my friends are from Latin American descent. The connection with this group of people planted in me the idea of a return trip that would require a long detour throughout South America and the Caribean. I wanted to visit my friend´s home countries as a way to understanding them better but also to reconnect with my roots. In 2013 I started traveling, the first place I visited was Colombia, then Ecuador, Perú, Chile, Argentina, Cuba, and so on. The project became a reconstruction of my history in Canada, but also a reconstruction of my own territory and a return to myself. With this work I explore issues of cultural identity. By connecting memory and territory and presence Absentia also talks about nostalgia, longing and loss.

The photo-book is composed by seven booklets, of 32 pages each. Each book evokes my experience of navigating seven cities: Cali, Quito, Lima, Buenos Aires, Havana, La Paz and Mexico City. To convey these ideas I used my travel journals and chose different kind of paper, experimenting with different printing processes. .

Absentia has been developed within The Photo-Book Incubator Program at Hydra in Mexico City and was co-published by Inframundo and the author. Inframundo is based in Mexico City and was founded by Ana Casas Broda, Ramón Pez and José Luis Lugo. Absentia has been presented by INFRAMUNDO in several photo festivals and art book fairs such as: Les Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles 2018 and 2019, Unseen Amsterdam 2018, Paris Photo 2018, LA BOOK FAIR 2019, and proximately will be at Printed Matter's NY Book Fair 2019.

This is a special edition of 50 copies handmade by the artist. The photo-book is available for sale at Hydra.