The Latino community based project Invisible Faces: Identity Portraits began on September 2014 with a shared idea of community engagement and participation, providing at the same time a document that witnessed the integration of the Latino community into the social and cultural history of this region.
The project was a turning point in our artistic and pedagogical practices, demanding from us and from the participants a lot of extra time and effort be- yond family environment, and establishing a righteous routine that would go on to become an essential part of our life.
Our personal stories about coming to the U.S are bound by a common thread—our experience of being from Latin America. As artists, we saw the dis- connection and felt the need to preserve our cultures, our language, to not forget our roots. By doing so we were trying to dynamically articulate the experiences of migrant communities into Iowa’s cultural life. We found Iowa to be a quiet and unique location closely connected to the agricultural economy and the prac- tices associated with such a force, which is also a fea- ture that identifies Latino way of life.
Starting in October 2014 and continuing for eight months, the project focused on participatory workshops intended to build technical skills, critical thinking, collaboration and co-production. Through creating collaborative venues for means of expression, the project helped to revitalize the public role of art as a site of community building. In November of the same year the first workshop was held at St. Patrick Church of Iowa City, then at Public Space One, and St. Joseph Catholic Church of West Liberty in the latter part of the project. Though the locations were a bit clandestine at times the enthusiasm and joy created in these spaces was always palpable.
Photography and printmaking have a long his- tory of engaging with and supporting social and po- litical struggle in Latin America. Using this same tool augmented by other visual mediums, the project has reflected on the vibrant, but at times difficult, Latino life experience in the U.S. Time after time we saw and heard how projects and basic services are truly need- ed and valued amongst a community that is too of- ten marginalized. We set out to make connections and pass along our skills and ideas of art to our Latino com- munity, but the results after every workshop and exhi- bition were beyond our expectations. At the end, the resulted artworks were a model and a method of social integration through artistic endeavors.
In June and July 2015 the work created in the multimedia workshops was showcased at local galler- ies. The public exhibition of the resulting artworks pro- moted cross-cultural experiences in eastern Iowa and more strongly inserted the Latino experience into pub- lic consciousness.
Patricia León
Fidencio Martínez
Gonzalo Pinilla
Artists & Project Organizers
