Ku Makinu - Yo Sueño - I Dream

2020-ongoing

Ku Makinu, is a personal documentary project that began as a result of isolation during the pandemic, Covid-19. This idea first emerged from my ethnographic research on animistic notions and ecological well-being, which takes into account the place of dreams and the non-human in Indigenous Sapara ontologies. During my time with the Sapara people in the Amazon rainforest prior to the pandemic, I learned dreams are described as a privileged entrance to ancestral knowledge, for them to know how to dream is to understand a language of symbols where representations are based on their interpretative process of the self, body, spirit and the land through their corporeal and oneiric experiences.

This work explores personal, bodily, and dream experiences through an interpretive process of emotions and symbols portrayed in photographs and narratives. This series of photographs is based on my dream journal as the storytelling process. For me, telling photo stories guided by my dreams became and continues to be a healing journey during these uncertain times. One of the main questions that guide this work is, how will dreams re-introduce us to our sacred commitment to the earth at a time when we have become separated from our divine source.

©Tatiana Lopez 2021, All rights reserved