Yaku is a community mural project created for the Yaku Water Museum in Quito, Ecuador. It was done in collaboration with Cruz Loma, a community dedicated to ecotourism and the protection of the moorlands that inhabit the slopes of the Pichincha volcano, in collaboration with oral historian Fernanda Espinosa and photographer Vanessa Teran Collantes.

I collaborated with oral historian Fernanda Espinosa to develop a community design process, during which we identified Cruz Loma’s values, narratives, and oral traditions. This became the basis for a triptych connecting the two locations. Two of the murals are in Cruz Loma, in the spaces the community tourism association uses for a restaurant and horse riding. The large-scale mural is at the museum entrance.

Collaboration and reciprocity, encapsulated in the Kichwa concept of Minka, emerged frequently throughout the research process and were expressed in various ways by the community. This collective way of working is essential to understanding the identity of the San Francisco de Cruz Loma community, and its ongoing practice is a defining strength that sets them apart.

At the center of the composition, a group of women is depicted engaged in work, their actions emphasized by golden lines that also echo the design motifs found in the murals of Cruz Loma. These lines not only structure the composition but also create spaces for multiple vignettes, arranged as quadrants. When read together, they form a tribute to the daily labor and communal efforts that sustain the Cruz Loma community.

For more information about this project, refer to this paper by curator Maria Fernanda Cartagena