01. Comparación

There is a silent wound that almost no one talks about: the pain of comparing oneself to others. At first, it’s just school posters that don’t look quite as good as the one next to them, or a greeting card that falls short—but over time, it becomes a habit to look outward to measure who we are. 01. Comparison arises from that wound and its healing: and this is the first building block that the Zakar Collective lays to tell a story that needed to be shared.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is a collection of twenty scenes that combine illustration and embroidery—a visual narrative that unfolds frame by frame and tells its own story. In the opening scenes, we see a little girl who creates tirelessly, striving to make her hands as skilled as those around her, until she gives up and decides that creativity isn’t for her. Several years later, almost by accident, a needle and thread restore something she seemed to have lost and forgotten forever. What follows is an old heart that is renewed by a new one, embroidered with flowers, and a question that runs through the entire piece: How much of what we believe we lack was actually just hidden beneath comparison?

This artistic project is the result of three disciplines coming together within a single narrative framework, without one overshadowing the other. An embroiderer who translates her story—which was once merely a confession—into stitches. An illustrator who contributes the line work and an innocent perspective on each scene. And a pianist who adds a third layer of interpretation through the rhythmic pulse of sound that envelops the piece.

01. “Comparison” does not illustrate a personal anecdote but rather seeks to open a conversation about creativity—which is constantly stifled by comparisons with others—about what is lost when the desire to feel better replaces the joy of creating, and about the certainty that what once seemed lost can be found and restored once again. The Zakar Collective does not intend to end this conversation here; rather, it opens it up, aware that a story this personal is only truly told when someone else recognizes themselves in it.