Water is of existential importance for human life and now object of a global enviromental crisis unprecedented in human history. Water is not only a natural resource, but also an object of politcal empowerment & social meaning.
COCHA is a hand woven paper investiture piece of 1,30 X 1,50 cm created from hundreds of selected cutted and selected pieces from Latin American maritime sea front atlases and maps. Referring to the suyu whipala structure each module is cutted in 7×7 cm and join together manually. Designed with a stepped pattern inspired from the sacred ruins and old scaffold textiles used in the Andean cultures; this work seeks to rescue an ancestral ritual of gratitude to water as a vital element for humanity.
Working with the geopolitical concept of displacement, Swinburn weaves pages of historical archives, aiming to strengthen the integration between various communities from the Global South in making reference to female resilience. Having operated as both cloak or armour - depending on the viewer’s interpretation - this piece also contains dual significance in its final form, given the piece was previously worn by the artist in a performance and later boxed and displayed as a sculpture. The artwork is therefore activated by the artist’s position as both fabricator and performer of the sculpture. This could be seen as a metaphor for resistance, where woven narratives are portrayed as a substitute for the silence of women throughout history. Lastly, it is important to remember that Swinburn’s sensational sculptures are produced by intricately weaving pages of texts together into constructed robust structures. Through this labour intensive approach, the material transforms from delicate pages of books to garment-like arrangements that the artist then wears as a cloak to perform in, as such her works undergo an important process of transformation and recycling. The recycling aspect in this work happens through many dimensions: content, form and process. Following her performances, the works become sculptures with a history of their own and result in an amalgamation of history and memory. Regenerating these narratives articulates for the artist both a sense of urgency and a mode of resistance.
Latin America and the Caribbean is a region with great marine heritage. Twenty-three of the 33 LAC nations have more marine than terrestrial territory. Of these, for 18 the maritime area of its economic exclusive zone exceeds 75% of total territory.
The importance of oceans to livelihoods and food security of Latin America and the Caribbean people must catalyse our action towards blue sustainable development with oceans playing a source of potential solutions and innovation.Our coasts, seas and oceans have generally been invisible in many critical areas. A significant data gap exists between land and ocean based natural processes and economic impacts.
Over 3 billion people worldwide depend on coastal and marine ecosystems for making a living, recognizing that oceans are home of more than one million known species and acknowledging that oceans are our planet’s life support and regulate the global climate system.
The LAC region is considered one of the most important productive areas of the world, with a unique marine biodiversity, home of the second largest barrier reef of the world. LAC has a uniquely productive marine area and represents a significant portion of global marine biodiversity.

CATALINA SWINBURN STUDIOBUENOS AIRES / ARGENTINA