"The paradox of the pocket" by Joni Barberi

In July 2026 in Buenos Aires, an emotional meeting with artist Franziska Windolf inspired "The paradox of the pocket." We shared family stories about migration, territory, and memory while visiting Parque Lezama in the south of the city. There, we explored the National Historical Museum and walked paths once used by enslaved people during colonial times. From the 17th to the early 19th centuries, African people were forced into the port of Buenos Aires and made to drop their real names for their owners' surnames. Today, local Afro-Argentine groups and drum bands still gather every Sunday afternoon to celebrate freedom, cultural resistance, and identity. While talking, we shared a mate drink. I saved the leftover yerba leaves to use in the artwork, adding a physical layer of memory from our chat and the park's history. Now, my family's story. Immigrants who moved to Argentina between 1860 and 1940 gladly faced a very different situation and a paradox: their pockets were empty of money, yet full of dreams, skills, hopes, and seeds. My own Italian and Uruguayan parents were part of this group, putting down roots in Buenos Aires and having three children. To honor these journeys and our bond as artists, I sewed real seeds from the park's Jacaranda, Ficus, and Phoenix palms inside the pocket, closing it with red thread. The fabric is made from old Argentinian school uniforms, stained with yerba mate, and treated with cyanotype. It acts as a living archive where sunlight reveals plant traces like a changing map of memory. The piece will now travel to Germany for the “Meet the Memory Person” project, held together by our shared thread and stories.