Daniela Torres is a multidisciplinary artist from Quito, Ecuador, currently based in Berlin. Advocating for gender equality through photography, ceramics, and writing, her work celebrates femininity, emphasizing beauty in vulnerability, empowerment, and liberation. Striking strong poses and using personal histories and archives in her projects, Daniela creates powerful self-portraits, reclaiming her narrative and asserting women’s right to be the protagonists of their own stories. In ’11k Kilometers for Healing,’ Daniela shares her transformative journey during a solo trip to Galapagos, finding solace in nature after an assault in Berlin. Her story is a powerful example, urging women to speak up, and reject societal shame. As a survivor, she emphasizes the importance of turning adversity into beautiful experiences, both in her personal life and artwork, breaking the silence and offering support to others.
Editing this series has been sometimes hard but at the same time breathtaking once again! Being at these landscapes, that nature and shooting in between those animals was impressive. They were staring at me as if I was an alien. Calmly checking if I didn’t go too close. The sand and hard lava stone in my skin. Hurting my knees, hands and elbows for a shot. Everything was beyond me, my human body, my knowledge… just a city girl. A Berlin girl… I melted in nature. What was once a tourist trip has now become a journey of healing.
Last December I was assaulted by my, now ex-partner in Berlin.
I did not make this trip for this reason. I did push myself to actually do it as it was booked already for months, but my mental health was terrible. I spent 6 weeks in bed and put all my strength into GO BACK TO MY COUNTRY. I arrived in a terrible state.
Going to Galapagos was the most reliving trip. The connection to nature, my decision and my strength to actually do a solo trip in a state like that, made me realise that what happened to me doesn’t belong to me, that’s not me! Was someone else’s fucked up story that they made me part of.
The story I am part of is beyond that and the opposite of this!
Daniela Torres
I’m capable of turning the ugly into beautiful amazing experiences for myself and that is my feature. Not only in my private life but in my artwork. I aim to be an example for many.
WOMEN do not shut up, speak up! Tell your story ANYHOW: Through your work, words, anything. Patriarchal oppression of thinking that speaking up is embarrassing to the survivor and not the aggressor is the real problem. Find your medium! You are heard!
I’m just an example, I’m here if you want to be heard. We are here.
I’m a survivor and never a victim!
