What is A Certain Condition, and how did it come to be?
A Certain Condition is an unplanned testimony of my lived experience with my mother, Mabel, over the past 3 years. While there is some staging, the images and videos in this series remain documentary and realistic, recording with clinical sincerity the atmosphere we endured.
My mother entered an unknown world, losing cognitive and motor abilities, and we as a family tried to adapt to the absurd code of this new reality. I accompanied her with dedication and bewilderment, seeking simple and immediate things we could do together, while questioning my own identity and family legacy.
One day a photographic game emerged, an improvised attempt to connect. It worked in unexpected ways: we laughed, repeated the exercise, and gradually refined it. The bond shifted.
Juan Flesca
One day a photographic game emerged, an improvised attempt to connect. It worked in unexpected ways: we laughed, repeated the exercise, and gradually refined it. The bond shifted. My once apathetic mother began to ask for photos; I, once afflicted, rediscovered enthusiasm. Sadness gave way to joy, and the camera became a bridge. At a moment when nothing made sense and the end felt near, a mission appeared, something larger than ourselves that offered relief and purpose.
A Certain Condition presents atmospheres where mystery, humor, the sinister, love, and beauty coexist naturally, in suggestive images and enigmatic metaphors. Through this work, I hope to show how art can transform relationships, bring light to even the darkest circumstances, and open new ways of seeing that challenge our previous understanding of the world. My practice spans image, sound, and word: photographs, films, drawings, collages, and texts that resonate with each other as part of a coherent and personal universe.
Who initially inspired you to grapple with dementia?
I had no choice but to face it. Watching my mother begin to transform into something new was profoundly moving and unsettling, both personally and philosophically. It raised questions about identity: Who is this woman? Is she still the mother I have known since childhood? Who am I, seeing myself reflected in her? Her condition does not belong to her alone, but to me, to our family, and to everyone around her. We are an ecosystem.
What I experienced was an overwhelming force of love, compassion, pain and bewilderment. That intensity became an inevitable call to action — through intuition and inspiration.
How has working on dementia-related art changed you?
Working on dementia has profoundly reshaped the way I approach art and the way I understand aging, living and identity. It expanded my view of people and existence, revealing the fragility of the human condition and making me question what it really means to be human, animal or, simply, a living being.
I discovered that beauty, humor and tenderness can coexist with fear, pain and horror, and that love emerges as the most powerful force. My work became less about control and more about presence, intuition and openness to the unknown.
This subject fits naturally within my overall body of work, which has always explored the coexistence of opposites: the mysterious and the familiar, the unsettling and the tender, the tragic and the playful. Dementia made these contrasts vivid, grounding my practice in lived experience and affirming art as a way of expanding beliefs and transforming perspective.
How has A Certain Condition been received?
The response has far exceeded my expectations, especially on an emotional level. People who do not know me personally have shared the most moving and beautiful words, often expressing gratitude and deep emotion. For me, it has been and continues to be a transformative and touching experience.
I believe I have never connected so strongly on an emotional level with an anonymous audience through my work. It is amazing how art can create bonds that go beyond personal history, reaching people in profound and unexpected ways. This feedback has shown me that the project does not belong only to me or to my family experience, but also to those who see themselves reflected in it.
In this sense, the reception has been both humbling and inspiring, encouraging me to continue exploring art as a bridge of empathy and shared humanity.
This work is dedicated to: My mother, Mabel, who is the true protagonist of the entire series. It was a shared process, something we created together as both an act of connection and expression. She passed away March 2025, and I am deeply grateful for her legacy. This project is not only about her, but also made with her. It stands as a concrete document that I can continue to share with others, a testimony of our bond and the ways we found meaning in the midst of uncertainty.
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