Ingreso, tránsito y permanencia (Toalla no guarda puesto)

temporary intervention, screenprinted beach towel, photo documentation
2019 - ongoing

Started in September 2019, this ongoing project uses the common practice of towels as markers of an individual plot at the beach or in the swimming pools. Expanding the logic of a personal space instantly delimited by unfolding a towel in a certain space, I imagine a portable accessibility in which it is enough to unfold a towel with the accessibility icon to make aplace in public space as a person with a motor disability, as a wheelchair user.

Since accessibility in Caracas is at best improvisational, I tend to know and look for marginal or “alternative” spaces to exist in public. This often leads to the finding of surprises, peculiarities and even visual jokes in my attempts to do “normal things”.

By spreading my towel and taking a photo, I record these moments while making a comment on the accessibility/inaccessibility of a place. It is at the same time a manifestation of pride, identity and protest for dignified and equal conditions of access, transit and permanence.

For the project, I have focused on “cultural” institutions or spaces (art galleries, museums, exhibition halls, cultural centers), because I insist that #accessibilityisculture and that it is in spaces of supposed civilization and reflection where we must first change the narrative and attitudes around disability, and also because they are the type of space that I frequent the most.