Herencias is a wide and polysemous concept. In this project, it refers to the idea of a dialogue between different cultures with distinct cultural legacies.

For Mathias Maumont Perafan, this heritage is dual: French and Colombian — a fascinating dual identity that remains complex to fully grasp. On a broader level, his interest extends to another form of dialogue, one deeply embedded in Andean South America: the encounter between two cultural heritages that, though different, have shaped a shared visual language.

This heritage is found in an aesthetic movement marked by religiosity, known as the Quito School of Art. Traditional Spanish Catholic art travelled aboard Christopher Columbus’s ships and arrived in South America, where it met and intertwined with the visual languages of various Indigenous peoples. This creative appropriation emerged vividly in the Quito School’s work, where unprecedented patterns and colour schemes rooted in Indigenous traditions were used to depict Catholic subjects.

In Herencias, Maumont Perafan explores this visual cross-pollination, preserving the religious theme while placing emphasis on the colours and patterns inspired by Indigenous communities from Colombia, such as the Wayúu from the Guajira Desert.

The series has received international recognition, being Finalist at the Head On Photo Festival (Sydney, 2020, Portrait category), Nominated at the Fine Art Photography Awards (Fashion 2020, Portrait 2021), and awarded the Coup de Cœur by CAPIC (2020). It has also been exhibited internationally, including the Pingyao International Photography Festival(China, 2022) as part of the Head On Portrait Award 2020 finalists’ showcase, and the CONTEMPORARY VENICE 2021 – ITSLIQUID International Art Fair (Italy), which explored the relationship between body and space and the hybridization of identities within contemporary contexts.