Samayuio reaches out to Quito’s neighbors to talk about the past, present and future of the city’s rivers, as well as to observe their impact on their quality of life.

In 2022, Samayuio, the Spirit of the River of Quito, obtained two important official selections. The first one from the Centro de la Imagen in Mexico and its festival Fotoseptiembre, whose main axis was developed around the territory to trigger questions about the ways in which we inhabit the world and the different ways of inhabiting space. The second, on behalf of the Lucie Foundation in Los Angeles and its international awards given every year at a global scale.

Thanks to this, the Secretariat of Environment of the Municipality of Quito promoted the traveling exhibition of photographs in the Zonal Administrations of: Quitumbe, Eloy Alfaro, Manuela Saenz, Calderon, Tumbaco and Los Chillos, in addition to being in the event to the Environmental Distinction 2022. Samayuio walked through them between September 2022 and February 2023 showing itself to more than 7,200 people.

In each of the administrations, we were able to launch The Water Forum, an independent citizen initiative in collaboration with the San Pedro River Rescue collective to raise awareness about the way we think, manage and imagine the rivers of the city of Quito, in order to project ourselves, both individually and as a community, towards a future that allows us to live with dignity and harmony with nature.

The Water Forum moved along with the exhibition of the photographic project with the presence of more than 210 neighbors who imagined together with us a future where Quito has clean, healthy and fluid rivers, on par with the overall health of the city and its people.

In the forum intervened: Monica Aguilar artist and visual educator, creator of the Samayuio project, Maribel Pasquel manager of Rescate del Rio San Pedro and Camola Valarezo loom artist, who is weaving together with the community, kilometers of the loom of the river to promote visual awareness about the rivers of Quito.

The Samayuio traveling exhibition was made possible thanks to the support of Quito’s Secretariat of Environment and the Fund for the Protection of Quito’s Water, FONAG.