Relicario De Un Viajero

2021/2022

A locket is more than an object. It’s a vessel that carries presence across distance. It holds the image of someone you love when they are no longer within reach, anchoring memory in something tangible.

This project is an act of reverence for the Santolo Franco family. It speaks to the fragility and strength woven into migration, the fragmentation of family, the silence between departures and reunions, and the last shared gaze before the unknown.

The project unfolds in five chapters: Unconditional Love, Growing in Consciousness, The Tissue that Unites, Past Present and The Traveler.

Unconditional Love

A mother's love is the refuge from a chaotic world, the sacred land where the traveler hopes to return someday. It is the love that forgives, waits patiently in silence, and prays that all goes well for those who are leaving.

Between prayers and faith, she impregnates the traveler with her good wishes and trusts in God that everything will work out for her children.

It is the beginning of the farewell ceremony and only the saints to whom she prays understand the pain of the empty nest

Growing in Consciousness

A father's love is the strength that carries the traveler forward. It is an encouraging voice that reminds you to keep your head high while moving through uncertainty.

It is a wise and patient love, one that seeks to understand the reasons behind departure and invites us to heal through tears and movement.

This chapter is a call to break inherited patterns in pursuit of the true self, no matter the cost.

It sees the traveler as a warrior facing his fears.

The fabric that unites

The universe of each family is woven by people through time and their decisions. Our blood is mixed between indigenous and european, where language is tangled and new words that did not exist before are pronounced.

Santolo grandparents:

Teresa, comes from a humble village: San José de Areocuar, in the east of the country, Venezuela. Descendant of the Cumanagotos Indians, she is an example of strength and leaves her land to live in the capital, Caracas, for a better future.

Aniello was born and raised in Vallo Della Lucania, Salermo. He bravely leaves a war-bleeding Europe and looks for a new land to live in, he is a traveler too.

Today Teresa claims that Aniello appears to her in dreams to tell her that he is well.

Past Present

Memories envelop people and resonate in the ears of new family members. Like old legends, they speak of those who are no longer with us. They are the present past, they inhabit our homes and our minds.

Fredewinda and Enrique are reminders that in the end, people transcend through family and their actions. Both moved from their hometown Maracaibo to the capital to offer their offspring a better future.

Their daughters today live surrounded by their parents' belongings, those objects observe their lives and are part of them. They are spectators of the cycle of life.

The Traveler

It is the inheritance of the flesh, the legacy of the source. The present is its path and is part of the family generational cycle.

History is made up of cycles, where all humans are participants. Everyone travels, everyone suffers, everyone has to let go of something they love, grow and navigate through uncertainty.

Each person has their own reliquary, their own familiar universe and is the inheritance of lives that no longer exist.

Distance reminds us that we are not alone and we are part of something bigger, flourishing in adversity.

Photography and Creative Direction: Daniel Santolo
Art Direction Assistant: Angélica Burgos and Jesús Goncalves
Videography: Maco Díaz
Photography Assistant: Gabriel Gómez
Styling: Samuel Coelho
Make up and Hairstyle: Wilanny Mesa
Studio: Two Seasons
Special Thanks: Elvira Franco, Teo Santolo, Teresa Vargas de Santolo, Color Mec, Nayibe Warchausky, Vanessa Farina, Leggenda Shop, Spectabilis, Manuela Benaim, Enrique Pimentel, Elízabeth Santolo, Rafael Franceschi, Judith Padrón

SANTOLOFRANCO