Construction of the Cities of Memory

Ernesto Bautista (b. 1987, Santa Ana, El Salvador; lives and works in El Salvador, Colombia, and Mexico)
"Construction of the Cities of Memory" 2018
Digital video, 17:22 min.
Collection of the artist

For Construction of the Cities of Memory, Ernesto Bautista interviewed some of his closest friends, asking them about the first houses they lived in, or the first houses they lost. Based on these oral histories, the artist created a 3D rendering of a virtual city with all the houses his friends remember, houses that no longer exist for them, but exist again in this new alternative reality.

The project refers to houses from the past that were once the homes of his friends and are now just a memory—houses that were lost due to forced displacements, divorces, violence, or even changes like new family members. Bautista’s virtual city grows with every new house that his friends tell him about, capturing what is important to them about these homes, and how all of us relate to spaces and objects. It shows how our bodies find comfort in a room, a couch, a person.

Construction of the Cities of Memory is a portrait of the most intimate space we have, our home. The work encourages us to think about who we were in the past and how we will construct new memories in our current spaces.

By Josseline Pinto (based in Guatemala City, Guatemala)