Gualok. Research notebook / Photobook

Gualok is a set of photographs and diaries that make up a personal and intimate project, an investigation towards my origins, it’s an exercise leading to reveal the mysteries associated with the construction of memory and my own identity.

Here I present the photobook, which is one of the parts of the entire project.

I think autobiographies help illuminate other lives. It is a very beautiful genre that allows us to approach certain "special" places through symbolic actions; create metaphors and understand.

The entire project consists of photographs, diaries, videos, actions, and poems. The story begins like this:

Mother dies while I sleep. No one dares to tell me the news. We’re far from home; two days and a half went by before someone gives me a pill and breaks the news. I’m 12 years old. I move to a new house, a new neighborhood, school and family. A new life unfolds before me. After 30 years, I decide to go back to the place where she was born, lived as young and, also, where she died: a city located in the northestern region of Argentina, called Sáenz Peña. In an attempt to sort out my conceived ideas, I travel with a few names I remember, and some pictures to start with.

I walk around the city looking for relatives, witnesses and information about that moment, an enigma that has accompanied me all these years is translated into images that intrigue, contain uncertainty and silence, they are the steps prior to the meetings, that quiet environment but rich in details. Finally, the testimonies and new knowledge appear. The vision of that past and the idea about my mother are expanded. What was hidden appears and with it the possibility of other truths, new stories told, different voices.

I take fictionalized self-portraits, write a diary, and talk to myself as I walk and watch. Words appear as small islands of ideas, perched on a color: the intimate sensitivity of materialized thoughts. Actions are searches that pivot between the unknown and the imagined. Where does your footprint end and mine begin?

Gualok, in Toba, means cotton, the language of the native peoples who inhabited the northeast region of Argentina.

Who I am

I am Lucila Bodelón, photographer, visual artist, poet and non-formal art teacher. I love books, taking pictures with different cameras and I also love helping other people to complete their projects. The autobiography is my favorite subject. I've been doing all these things for over 20 years.

This photobook will be the 3rd. that I do with my personal work but the first one that will have an edition of 100 copies and that will be accompanied by some gifts for all those who want to accompany this process.

You can know more about me in: bodelon.info

You also find me on Instagram as @lucbodelon

Allocation of contributions

The contributions of each one of you will be to cover the printing costs and the rewards themselves. The book already has its mockup ready to go to press! There is only the last push left to come to light.

Set Schedule

Once the goal is achieved, printing, publication, and delivery of each reward will begin. I estimate a term of 30 to 45 days for it to come out of the press and, from that moment another 20 days to make all shipments.

Shipment

Shipping costs are included within the Iberian Peninsula. If you want to find out costs for your area, if outside Spain, contact me at

[email protected]

+ Info

• In July I presented the model at Cosecha 2020, an event managed by Photo Club Book Madrid and which, despite these strange times, could be held at the Museo Reina Sofía as it has been the practice for several years now.

If you want to see the presentation video, visit: https://livestream.com/museo-reina-sofia/events/9217006

Photobook Features

Size: 21 x 14 cm

Page Quantity: 80

Languages: Spanish and English

Edition of 100 numbered and signed copies

** Thank you very much for being a part! **