about
de la choza a la losa
De la choza a la losa is an ongoing artistic research project developed in collaboration with the Indigenous community of La Rinconada, in the northern Ecuadorian Andes. It explores how cultural transformations are reflected in the built environment, particularly in the transition from traditional earthen dwellings (“choza”) to modern concrete houses (“losa”). This shift is understood not simply as a change in materials, but as a mirror of broader social, economic, and political processes shaping contemporary life in the Andes.
The project combines ethnographic methods with artistic approaches. Over a period of one year between fieldwork and reflection, we worked closely with the inhabitants of La Rinconada, conducting interviews, participating in daily life, and accompanying community practices. This collaboration resulted in a diverse archive of testimonies, analog and digital photography, drawings, maps, and more than one hundred hours of audiovisual material.
From this archive, we produced a 20-minute documentary film
Currently, the research is in its final stage: the preparation of a book that will bring together texts, testimonies, illustrations, and photographs. The publication will serve both as an artistic object and as a form of return to the community, offering them a carefully curated record of their own memories and transformations. Beyond documentation, the book aims to open spaces for dialogue between rural and urban contexts, Indigenous and non-Indigenous audiences, questioning simplistic views of “tradition” and celebrating cultural hybridity as a living and creative process.