Unseen is a powerful journey through the heart of La Paz, a city teeming with life, myth, and memory. Gonzalo Araoz weaves together sensory experiences, cultural fragments, and historical layers, creating a narrative that blurs the line between reality and myth. As the stories unfold, they reveal the delicate, often unspoken tensions between memory, transformation, and the spaces between life and death. This is a tale of shadows and echoes, of a city whose stories never truly fade, but rather evolve and grow with each telling.
In Unseen, La Paz is not just a backdrop but a living, breathing character. The city's streets, hills, and landscapes are woven into the fabric of the narrative, guiding the characters through a maze of memories, both collective and personal. La Paz is where history, myth, and reality collide in a delicate dance, shaping the lives of those who walk its jagged paths.
Decay is both physical and metaphorical in Unseen. The stories unfold in places where time has worn down both the landscape and the soul. But in this decay, there is also transformation — a sense of liminality, where the boundaries between life and death, reality and myth, are constantly shifting. The fragility of life and the resilience of memory are ever-present, as characters navigate a world in flux.
The characters of Unseen are fragmented, constantly shifting between different identities. The narrative explores the complexity of self, as characters grapple with who they are in relation to their surroundings, their families, and their own memories. It is a journey into the multiplicity of identity, where the past and present collide, and where every encounter challenges the perception of who we are and who we might become.
La Paz, like the human body, has its scars, wounds, and healing processes. The city's veins are its streets, its breath the winds that swirl around its hills, and its heart lies in the stories whispered through its alleys. Unseen explores the connection between the city and its people, showing how they are bound together by memory, history, and the ever-present pulse of life and death.
Gonzalo Araoz is an anthropologist and visual artist whose work transcends boundaries between sensory perception, memory, and transformation. Founder of the Transatlantic Network on Mental Health and the Arts (TRAMHA), his practice integrates the complexity of lived experience with artistic expression. With a background in both anthropology and the arts, Gonzalo explores the intersections of cultural identity, the body, and the urban landscape, giving voice to the unseen stories of our world.
Gonzalo Araoz’s artistic practice is rooted in the exploration of decay, transformation, and the sensory experience of the world. Drawing from his anthropological background, his work delves into the idea that materials—whether they are wood, paint, or the human body—carry with them histories and stories waiting to be uncovered. By salvaging objects on the verge of disappearance, Gonzalo finds beauty in imperfection and fragility, creating works that reflect both the vulnerability and resilience inherent in all forms of existence. His art, like his writing, is a meditation on the interplay between memory, place, and the process of becoming.
“A reflection on decay, transformation, and mortality.”
“Landscapes as mirrors of memory, where myth and reality coexist.”
“The presence of the mountain is both spiritual and tangible, a silent witness to time.”
A literary work exploring memory, myth, and the unseen layers of the city through sensory, fragmentary narratives.
A cross-disciplinary exploration of madness through anthropology, art, and lived experience.
A collaborative volume examining mental health narratives across cultural and disciplinary boundaries.
A Spanish-language edition of a seminal work in the anthropology of art. Gonzalo Araoz co-organised the translation and contributed to the editorial presentation, expanding the book’s reach into Spanish-speaking academic and artistic communities.