W Migrant (Traces - 04/2021)

The starting point of this work was to take into account the proposal of Andrea Juan and Gabriel Penedo to put down any other project that we had had up to now. Start from scratch, trying to connect with a true feeling, without rationalizing or theorizing. Simply working with stripped emotion led me to my own origins as the granddaughter of immigrants.

This is how Leon and Ana appeared in my memory, young people under 30 who ventured in search of a new possible destination for themselves and their offspring. I started from the memoirs written by Fanny, Israel and Noel, their children, to reconnect with history. I also carried out a series of investigations that the web and the google map provided me to locate the city of Bender and the fields of the old Bessarabia, that they impacted me so much and that I traveled imaginatively moving there.

 Finally, four objects became relevant, which chance brought to my hands.

Two lighters that belonged to my grandfather Leon and two Shabbat glasses that they say were brought by Ana. Those objects were very inspiring. They were duplicated in photos, tracing drawings, inks and watercolors and took the place of "themselves". The lighter; the flame, the strength and the courage always represent Leon and the cup, the cavity and the feminine to Ana.

Conceptually ordered all the information, supporting it on two axes; TRAVERSEAS of places, of continents, the continuous wandering through Europe and different territories of Argentina and the ACCUMULATIONS of suitcases, burlap bags, cereals, clean or washed clothes, pots ...

Finally, I included an epistolary between León and Ana with the letters that might have been written.

All that research was transformed into a project, prototype or test in the form of an artist's book that was transformed into a video / artist's test, which will surely lead to other versions of this fertile and moving starting point.