Pablo Briones
Tucumán, *1983
Domitila is an indigenous Peruvian woman who
has been an undocumented domestic worker in
Geneva for over 20 years. With the death of her
daughter several years earlier, she faced an
unprecedented situation for her, namely financial
hardship and extreme isolation because she
speaks only Quechua and Spanish. Having reached
the age of retirement but without the possibility of
receiving a pension, she turned to a legal advice
office in the hope that her status as a laborer
in Switzerland might be officially recognized.
Following her consultation, she was advised to
return to her home country since the meager
traces of her left in the official record by her
employers were sorely inadequate to prove
she had indeed spent many years in Geneva. In
the logic of the administrative state, Domitila
remains an abstraction. Pablo Briones paints a
unique personal portrait of Domitia in which the
social divides of Genevan society resonate.