Origen

Dates

2011 - Ongoing
Author

Glorianna Ximendaz
Locations Argentina, Costa Rica
Recognition

Main Prize Shortlist - PhMuseum 2022 Women Photographers Grant

Origen is a personal long-term project that aims to address the stories of sexual abuse and violence in my maternal lineage, myself included.

As women, we have experienced the abusive power of our patriarchal societies, having been silenced, mistreated, oppressed, and murdered.

The project was born as an internal healing journey through current images and past memories seeking to regain control of our bodies, souls, and stories.

 The discussion with the women of my family has made me relate with them on a new level, meanwhile, I discover how my pregnancy and becoming a mother have urged me to heal and stop this unwanted heritage we have suffered from our past generations.

© Glorianna Ximendaz - Image from the Origen photography project

My great-grandmother at the age of 14, by that time she fled home to avoid the sexual and physical abuse she was receiving from her stepfather. After that, he became homeless for a period of time.

At the age of 18, crying in the tub days after being sexually abused, I was living on my own in Argentine far away from my home country, I was abused by a famous photographer while attending his workshop. I was alone and scared and used documentation as a way to verbalize my trauma.

Burning photography of the military dictator and former president of Costa Rica that raped and impregnated my great great grandmother, after that, she was threatened to prevent to speak. She had to escape since she worked as his housemaid.

Self-documentation was my primary tool to overcome and verbalize my trauma.

A photo of my mother and great-grandmother. At an early age, my mom was sexually abused, it took her 50 years to verbalize it, only after I showed her this work in progress.

My mother's womb after she suffered obstetric violence during her hysterectomy surgery, performed by a Gynecologist who later on was charged with sexual abuse crimes.

My mom and me carrying my daughter in my womb, three generations together.

A photograph of my placenta. When my daughter was born I cut the umbilical cord alongside the ties of the scars and wounds of my abuses.

A photograph of my pregnancy.

My grandmother talked to me about the healing power of water, years after, I felt that power on my own, and now I keep seeking refuge in it, water symbolizes the return to a sacred place.

My grandmother had Intellectual disabilities as a consequence of an accident, when she was a teenager, 3 older men raped her taking advantage of her condition. 60 years later she talked about it with my mom.

The urge to connect with my inner child, to heal my wounds, to rewrite my story, to overcome and avoid the revictimization of our stories.

Origen

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