WE-ARE-FAMILIA
IS AN EXTENSIVE GLOBAL NETWORK OF CREATIVE INDIVIDUALS FROM ALL DISCIPLINES WHO HAVE COME TOGETHER TO EXPLORE THE POWERFUL, COMPLEX TIES WHICH CONSCIOUSLY AND UNCONSCIOUSLY TOUCH ALL THAT WE EXPERIENCE AS HUMANS.

Her only request was that each submission related to the idea of “family,” hence the group’s name. During the first year, Garcia recalled that she had reached out to other art organizations without much luck. Now after four years, WE-ARE-FAMILIA produced eleven keepsake boxes, was invited to multiple art fairs, threw populated exhibitions for emerging artists, and was commissioned by the Museum of Art and Design, New York, during Metal Ball. The members seemed to adhere to a Post Structuralist postulate during development; yet when it came to art, the collective chose design over chance aesthetics but always encouraged multiple viewpoints.

As a graphic designer, Garcia originally planned on producing twenty-five books cataloging contributors’ works. She was overwhelmed by and thankful for the large number of responses from not only artists but graphic and fashion designers, illustrators, composers, directors and film makers, photographers, even manufacturing companies. Finally, she decided to admit fifty of the numerous applicants. Each member donated twenty-five works of art ranging from musical compositions, photographs, drawings, video art, prints, illustrations, designed goods and more. Her tentative plan morphed into twenty-five “keepsake boxes, but even boxes (think Duchamp’s “boxes”) could not contain the various forms of art.

Ultimately, Garcia and the fifty members agreed to produce twenty-five mementos. The “boxes,” which mimic furniture, are constructed by found objects, which hold up to forty original or printed and numbered works signed by creators. The first three constructions were crafted after Garcia and members rummaged through left-over materials in Brooklyn and Queens. These three sculptures were exhibited at Colette in Paris.