Studio Anywhere, Barcelona 2026.

 

Technique: Technique: Printed digital photography, audiovisual and textile installation.

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The Continuous Commotion of Travel

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In his exhibition Sororrativas, artist Juan Manuel Barrios moves away from the urban landscape that has been a recurring focus of his work to delve into his personal and family history, which emerges from the journey of his mother from the Republic of Paraguay. She traveled downstream along the river until reaching a new place in Uruguay where she could begin a new life. The fabric of the dress his mother brought with her is both protagonist and memory, situated at the origin of the artist’s own life.

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In this way, the work unfolds on a deeply intimate and theatrical scale. His combined background as a photographer and tailor is enhanced through the scenographic composition of these images. Added to this is his great love of cinema.

The artist constructs the journey through evidence of a voyage that is both outward and return. The departure of his mother from the department of Itapúa, Paraguay, is represented through the travel ticket, the flow of the river, and the photograph of his mother embarking on her journey. The return, from the present, becomes the place of the filial encounter from which to look back upon the journey that has been made.

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The term “sorrorativas,” born from the juxtaposition of sorority — solidarity among women, particularly in the struggle for their empowerment — and narratives, invites us to explore the stories of the different generations of women who set the journey in motion even before it began. These narratives take us back to the time when the artist’s mother was taught by her aunt how to make her first garments, pieces that would accompany her throughout the journey.

There is also the presence of the artist’s grandmother, whose protection helps overcome difficulties. This passage is mediated by the flow of the river, which sometimes carries us along a winding course, confronting us with the vital changes of life. For Barrios, emotions and their folds acquire a new depth when he portrays himself alongside his mother in an attempt to immortalize their figures outside of real time, transporting their bond into a historical, almost mythical dimension. These compositions evoke the investiture of a journey across the river toward a new horizon, from which personal life can be recreated and a new generation given its place.

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At the same time as it bears witness to this life story, the fabric acquires new meanings as its heavy, dramatic folds transform everyday bodies into monumental figures, major arcana of an affective and filial tarot, where life, destiny, identity, and the passage of time become intertwined.

Another dimension of the exhibition emerges through a dose of irony and playfulness. Drawing on the essence of camp, which Susan Sontag defines in her 1964 essay Notes on “Camp” as a sensibility that privileges style over content, the artist creates a radical contrast by presenting himself and his mother with solemn imposture. This aesthetic resonates with the post-truth of bodies shaped by haute couture as it turns toward pop, echoing creators such as Jean Paul Gaultier.

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Nothing is left to chance: the folds, the poses of the bodies, and the chiaroscuro reminiscent of Caravaggio’s paintings come together in a theatrical mise-en-scène, where the real vulnerability and strength of the characters are sheltered behind textile pomp. Through tailoring, clothing in his work does not function as a mask to conceal the subject, but rather as a political tool that allows him to decide how he wishes to be seen by history. Barrios subverts the traditional hierarchies of class and power.

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If, for the artist, dressing a body means designing its public identity, then dressing in this fabric, which carries the history of his family, means exposing his most intimate identity. This is a performative investigation, because the artist does not use photography as a mere passive record, but as the result of a bodily action, a role-playing exercise, and a critical intervention into reality.

This photographic series by Juan Manuel Barrios is a fascinating example of the intersection between photography, tailoring, and family bonds. Marguerite Yourcenar, in Memoirs of Hadrian, refers to travel as “that perpetual breaking of habits, that continuous commotion of all prejudices.”

This is Juan Manuel Barrios’s invitation: to experience this initiatory journey as an act of creation, where traces give rise to new discoveries and where art becomes an encounter, free from habits and prejudices.

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Jacqueline Lacasa
Curator

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