It is in the gaze that the essence of personality is given shape. Each image of the other was overlaid on a portrait of me and the result is a hybrid; 20 men from the different origins shown on my DNA, with my gaze. The central one is a woman, regarding the feminine forces inside masculine ones and also refers to the Mithochondrial Eve -our most ancient ancestor- found in Southeast Africa.
(To access the video, please click link below)
(To access the video, please click link below)
21 layers overlaid according to the percentage in my DNA (the highest on top)
21 layers overlaid according to the percentage in my DNA (the lowest on top)
21 layers overlaid according to the percentage in my DNA (the highest on top)
(To access the video, please click link below)
21 layers overlaid according to the percentage in my DNA (the highest on top)
(To access the video, please click link below)
People ordered from more to less and from right to left, according to the percentage in my DNA.
People ordered from more to less and from left to right, according to the percentage in my DNA.
The patrilineal haplogroup J-L70 traces back to a Middle East man who lived approximately 34.000 years ago. His descendants domesticated plants and livestock for the first time, becoming the earliest farmers and diffusing their farming expertise all around. 1,360 generations later, the J-L70 became part of me through my father, who is agro-technician, and was born in the Venezuelan Andes, more than 12,000 km and 30 millennia away form our primal ancestor.
D1F1 J-L70 Register of birth of last 5 generations. From left to right: María Isabel Arocha (1838) María del Carmen Felipa Benicia Núñez Arocha (1858) Soledad Maximiana Sucre Núñez (1883) María Vicenta Alemán Sucre (1911) Nydia Eunice Elena Linares Alemán (1933) Antonio José Briceño Linares (1966) Antonio José Briceño Salas (1940) Francisco Elías Briceño González (1906) Carlos María Briceño Márquez (1870) Ramón de la Cruz Briceño Guerrero (1843) Juan Evangelista Briceño Uzcátegui (1815)
This self-portrait refers to the passage of time. The photo on the right was taken on June 13th 2008 in New Zealand, the day after my tattoo was finished. In it the Maori artist represented a canoe, as a symbol of the constant journey. The photo on the left was taken in September 2018, in Barcelona, the place where I am living now, far from Venezuela where I was born.
Percentages found on my DNA and contributors from each origin
The African origin of modern humans has been estimated at 300,000 years ago, in Sub-Saharan Africa and the expansion of humanity went on to conquer all the inhabitable places on the planet. The most ancient remains of Homo sapiens have been found in East Africa. Supposing that is the original site of the species, all of us who live outside it are children of migration. The DNA of all modern humans is a mosaic built out of continual mixing.
Human movements are an extremely complex phenomenon which has very diverse causes and great political, environmental and social relevance. On the world level there are waves of emigrants fleeing from their places of origin, for many reasons, with the hope of finding a better life. According to the UN, there are 250 million migrants, 3.3% of the world population.
In 2014, due to an unprecedented social crisis in Venezuela, my country, I had to emigrate to Barcelona. Since then the fact of migration has become the central concern of my life. A few months ago I decided to investigate, by means of a study of my DNA, the origin of my ancestors. When I received the results of the analysis I understood the magnitude of the migratory process: in my genome practically all the regions of Earth are represented. My DNA contains information in it from 21 genetic groups.
By virtue of my present condition as an emigrant, I decided to undertake this project, which I have called Yo somos (I am we), and in which I want to highlight the diversity and mobility of the species and suggest a reflection on migration as a process constituting, since its origins. It attempts to bring into the open the subject of the impossibility of pure and immobile races, at the same time as it reveals human diversity, not only in cultures and nations, but down to the level of each individual.
By digitally overlaying portraits of people who, like me, have migrated to Barcelona from each of the places mentioned in the report on my DNA I did several series of images, videos and installations relating to the fact of migration and some of its consequences, playing with both science and metaphor.