Bryan Heredia Criollo

This immersive multimedia installation—including video, photography, painting, and drawing—was created by the Ecuadorian artist based in Spain for his first solo exhibition in Madrid. As the title shows, the work refers to the transformation of the cultural legacy of migrants in their host countries. Here, Heredia Criollo combines mentions of the importance of the banana market in his native country’s economy with allusions to the Asian visual culture that prevails in his neighborhood in Madrid, among others. The installation begins with a curtain of banana leaves imported from Ecuador and hand-sewn with sisal thread. This is followed by a succession of references to pre-Hispanic sculptures, specifically from the Tolita, Chorrera, Bahía, and Jama Coaque cultures, originally on the coast of Ecuador and close to the main banana-growing areas of today, and elements of popular culture and commercial graphic design—such as signs, labels, graffiti, and typographies common in any global city where bananas are consumed today.