Gloria Oyarzabal
USUS FRUCTUS ABUSUS (La Blanche et la noire)- 3000ppp

PHOTO OXFORD OPEN CALL 2025: RUNNER UP

In Roman law, ownership was defined as the absolute, perpetual and exclusive full enjoyment over an object or corporeal entity. The USUS was the right that the holder had to make use of the object according to its destination or nature, FRUCTUS was the right to receive the fruits, ABUSUS was the right of disposition based on the power to modify, sell or destroy the object or given entity. Museums originated as institutions more than 300 years ago, when certain royal collections were made accessible to the great public.

They would hence become instrumental tools in the construction of identity and the definition of Nation.And bearing in mind the outstanding colonialist origin of many of their collections,then conflict with History narrative,the creation of knowledge and,consequently,collective and individual memory,becomes unavoidable.A revision of the relationship between anthropology and museum collections assembled from a despoiling colonial past,its historicity and historiography,justified by a quest for discovery – almost always legitimated through a “rescuing” spirit –, leads to the conclusion that for decades these spaces have reinforced exotism and distinction,intrinsically related to supremacist discourses.Museums as creators of imaginaries,as institutions that aren’t and have never been neutral holders,yet have benefited from exhibited objects and artefacts.They are a powerful tool for instilling respect,changing prejudices and revising History.Or dangerously the opposite.Is the concept of museum universal?Let’s look behind the curtain.

Intrinsically related to ‘otherness’ and linked to the colonisation of the concept of woman,it is pertinent to point out the responsibility of the risky representation of the black woman in the history of Western art.Stereotypes of black sexuality:bold,available and subservient;and also the gaze/position between white women and black women,the relationship of the black woman’s body and identity with the settler that leads to perpetuate stereotypes,reinforce exoticization,allow cultural appropriation, mark out hierarchical differences, etc.… Eternal Odalisques. 

Questions of spoliation, hegemonic narratives,race and gender are addressed based on the concept of ownership.

Return what has been plundered and looted, both in terms of objects and identity,is it an urgent,universal and feasible question for everyone?

Ownership,restitution,reparation,recontextualization... who has agency to give,return, loan,adjudicate,rename?

Bachelor of Fine Arts(UCM).Lived 3 years in Mali researching in the construction of the Idea of Africa and ‘Otherness’,processes of colonization/decolonization,new strategies of colonialism and heterogeneity in African feminisms.She diversifies her professional activity between cinema, photography and teaching;mainly working in the African continent.After her Master at Blankpaper,her work is shown at international venues as FOTOFESTIWAL,FORMAT,ORGAN VIDA,KaunasFoto,PhotoEspaña,Athens Photo,LagosFoto,Museum of Photography Thessaloniki,Singapore International Photo Festival,Photo Marseille,Odessa Foto Days,Biennale Für Aktuelle Fotografie,Helsinki Foto, Copenhague Photo,Festival Internacional de Belo Horizonte.

Photobooks: PICNOS TSHOMBÉ (Landskrona Photobook Award 2017),WOMAN GO NO’GREE (VEVEY IMAGES Photobook Award,APERTURE PARIS PHOTO Best Photobook of the Year 2020). Artist-in-residence at Ranchito Matadero Nigeria/South Africa, Galerie21|Vorwerk-Stift(Hamb),Fondazione Orestiadi(Sic)Nubuke Foundation(Gh)Museum Egizio(It)

Nominations:Prix Elysée 2022-24,Foam Paul Huff Award 2023,Deutsche Börse Award 2024

Awards:Lensculture Critic’s Choice 2024,Passepartout Photo 2024,FotoSlovo 2024,Fotografía Europea 2022,Fotofestiwal Grand Prix 2019,Encontros Da Imagem Discovery Award 2018,PHOTOMED 2019,Meitar Award for Excellence in Photography PHOTO IS:RAEL 2019,PhotoChronicles Portrait Award 2019….among others.

Her projects have appeared in several prestigious international publications 

http://www.gloriaoyarzabal.com/

Instagram: @gloria_oyarzabal