Propuesta visual contemporánea para el fortalecimiento de la identidad social de la cultura Drag en Cuenca

Abstract

Being a Drag Queen does not just mean dressing up and exaggerating femininity: it is the representation of women from another original identity. In Cuenca (Ecuador) this community is still not that strong, because even LGBTQ+ members like them do not know of its existence. Hence, we proposed to contribute to the strengthening of the social identity of Drag culture in Cuenca through an anthropologically based contemporary visual artistic proposal. Thus, after an immersion of the artist in the social collective - completely similar to the most classic ethnographic approaches - it was possible to provide a proposal that helps the identity representation of the Drag community and those who represent it, with the development of a process in three phases: the first of them shows stereotypical makeup of what is thought of as a Drag Queen; the second, the male face base of the representation; and the third, the human traits common to all. In this way, an aesthetic experience is fostered through experiential simulation and translation of characters as a symbol and game, for the recognition and integration of Drag into a notion of Cuenca culture in construction and updating.