Los Imaginarios de la Identidad
www.losimaginariosdelaidentidad.com

Los Imaginarios de la Identidad (Imaginaries of Identity) is a series of large-scale photomontages of high-resolution scanned Venezuelan circulated paper currency, assembled with documentary reportage photography of the nation’s contemporary history. I use images sourced from the web-based publications that could not be published in Venezuelan newspapers due to censorship to the printed press.

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These 6-foot tall photomontages use the paper currency containing intaglio-engraved portraits of historically important Venezuelan figures as background and put them in dialogue with photojournalistic coverage of the hyperinflation, political conflict, censorship, struggles with covid-19, LGBTQ rights, and social collapse.

They are products of the examination of my own relationship with Venezuelan history and current reality, and informed by my experience in news publications as a photo editor and freelance photojournalist.

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I often work with archival material. In this ongoing series, I use reportage images of Venezuelan contemporary history and the nationalistic narratives that are promoted through the currency, to question the mechanisms of distribution of images and formation of historical narratives. These paper-based devices are essential to historical narratives and utilize (or forget) the past and/or present political situation of these nations.

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The photojournalistic images I use in photomontages illustrate the racial, socioeconomic and historical relationships of different stakeholders of the Venezuelan identity. With this gesture I aim to imprint these dynamics back into the currency, materializing it in digital printmaking similar to that used to make currency.

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Forced to be without a passport, a national subject quarantined without a consulate, I am an artist that cannot keep social distance from the social-political reality in Venezuela.