Fabiola Cedillo
Human

Exhibition Details

Starting from some existential questions about the meaning and the very essence of birth, Ecuadorian photographer Fabiola Cedillo investigates the human being's need for reproduction, whether with a partner or independently, naturally or thanks to science.

Her project Human observes how Human Assisted Reproduction Techniques (TRHAs) have brought about changes in family structures, creating new forms of social bonds and consequently altering some of our beliefs. Nowadays, the birth of a child is accompanied, in some cases, by different people besides the father and the mother. We can name, for example, the sperm donor, the egg donor or the woman who hosted the surrogacy, not to mention the doctors and biologists.

TRHA confronts us with issues such as timelessness, illusion, eternity and omnipotence. Thanks to technology and science a virgin woman can give birth. We are able to transplant uteruses into men who can thus go through the experience of pregnancy. When science intervenes it has the power to create an unknown world in which what appears to be in total control paradoxically is true only to a certain extend.

In this context, Cedillo reminds us of the allegory of Frankenstein taken as an example to also show a certain perplexity towards what scientific development can entail. As technology advances, we are faced with unprecedented and difficult to predict possibilities. A fundamental question, therefore, arises spontaneously at the heart of this research. To what extent can we dare?