iluikak

iluikak is an attempt to breach the conventions of an assumed identity and explore a new state of consciousness to allude the uncertain nature that extends beyond the Zongolica Nahuas’ everyday context, developing small allegories that provide a new way to discern these characters.

In the wayward Mexico of today, where sociopolitical instability has prompted society to lose contact with its roots, heritage, and territory, Veracruz is one of many places where Mexican citizens face injustice on a daily basis. In hopes of bringing viewers’ eyes and attention to its reality. I have chosen to situate myself and my project in this part of Mexico.

To open a mountain implies entering its multiple dimensions: the mountain as a way of life, as a secret, as a fantasy, as a history, as a nature, as time. La sierra de Zongolica in the state of Veracruz, is tracked by the slow construction of these photographs, shaped by high, mid and low lands as a constant transition of heights and humidity. Its original inhabitants, the Nahuas peoples since ancient times are country workers and more and more they become migrant communities due to the precarious socio-economic conditions and violence in the region, being Veracruz one of the most violent states in the country.

Iluikak, which in Nahuatl means "close to the sky" is a project that assumes fully the tight relationship between what a photographic image creates and the real it comes from. It leads through the furrow between documentary and fiction. In the images, which are tied in their temporalities from the idea of act, a space is managed not only for the visions and symbols of the mountain to emerge, but to create an imaginary at the same time abstract and concrete from the pendular relationship between the visible and the invisible.

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