Portrait Series · Mixed Media Sculpture
Julio Jaramillo — 1 Sucre
A tribute to Ecuador’s most enduring popular voice, transformed into a sculptural banknote that carries music, memory and migration.
Art Series · New York · 2026
Ecuador
Nostalgia
Memory, migration and popular culture transformed into sculptural interpretations of Ecuador’s former currency.
The Collection
Memorias impresas.
The sucre once passed from hand to hand as part of ordinary life. In this collection, it returns as an object of memory.
English
Ecuador Nostalgia reinterprets the visual language of historic banknotes as contemporary sculptural works. Faces, symbols and denominations become vessels for personal and collective memory—connecting Ecuadorians at home and abroad with places, voices and cultural references that remain familiar long after migration.
Español
Ecuador Nostalgia reinterpreta antiguos billetes como obras escultóricas contemporáneas. Rostros, símbolos y denominaciones se convierten en recipientes de memoria personal y colectiva, conectando a los ecuatorianos dentro y fuera del país con lugares, voces y referentes culturales que permanecen vivos después de migrar.
Curator Statement
There are objects that disappear from everyday life but never disappear from memory.
For Ecuadorians, the sucre was more than currency. It passed through millions of hands, accompanied childhoods, family businesses, music, celebrations and ordinary life. It became part of a shared visual identity.
Ecuador Nostalgia transforms those forgotten banknotes into large-scale sculptural artworks, preserving not their economic value, but their emotional value. Every work begins with a historic denomination and evolves into a new visual narrative where music, art, popular culture, humor, migration and personal memory converge.
This collection is not about money. It is about remembering.
— Iván Orquera
Collection Index
Four works. Four fragments of memory.
Featured Artwork
Julio Jaramillo — 1 Sucre
The voice of Julio Jaramillo remains woven into Ecuadorian family life, migration and popular memory. Reimagined through the visual language of the sucre, this work transforms a familiar cultural figure into a sculptural object of remembrance.
Original artwork2026Mixed media sculptureAtelier OrqueraLarge-format installationNew York
Reverse Side
Architectural Memory
The reverse preserves the architectural engraving and graphic language of Ecuadorian currency, reinforcing the dialogue between cultural identity, place and memory.
Artwork: Julio Jaramillo — 1 Sucre
Reverse view
Mixed media sculpture
2026
The Process
From currency to artwork.
01Historical Research
02Concept
03Digital Reconstruction
04Composition
05Large-Format Production
06Sculptural Assembly
07Exhibition
Selected Works
The currency of memory.
Portrait Series · Mixed Media Sculpture
Julio Jaramillo — 10 Sucres
The familiar language of historic currency becomes a physical portrait of collective remembrance.
Art & Identity Series · Mixed Media Sculpture
Oswaldo Guayasamín — 10,000 Sucres
A dialogue between Ecuadorian currency and one of the country’s most powerful artistic legacies.
Popular Memory Series · Mixed Media Sculpture
El Miche — 5 Sucres
Popular humor and cultural memory enter the formal visual system of a national banknote.
Artist Statement
These works are not reproductions of money. They are portraits of memory.
By enlarging, reshaping and recontextualizing the visual language of Ecuadorian banknotes, the series asks what remains after a currency disappears. The answer is not economic value, but emotional value: family stories, migration, music, politics, humor, identity and the small objects through which a country remembers itself.
Collector Information
Acquire the work.
Selected works from Ecuador Nostalgia are available for private collections, cultural institutions, exhibitions and commissioned projects.
Original mixed-media works
Museum-quality limited editions
Private commissions
Institutional and cultural exhibitions
International shipping by arrangement
Audio Stories
Listen to the story behind each bill.
Short audio narratives by Iván Orquera will accompany individual artworks, sharing the memories, cultural references and personal stories that inspired each piece.
Coming soon.
Exhibitions
An evolving public history.
2025
The first ideas and studies for Ecuador Nostalgia begin.
2026
The sculptural currency series is developed and produced in New York.
August 2026
First public presentation of the collection in Queens, New York.
Next
New works, future exhibitions and institutional presentations.
Future Collections
The archive continues to grow.
Newspaper Series
Public memory through headlines, print culture and historic events.
Magazine Covers
Popular culture, identity and the visual history of everyday Ecuador.
Memory Objects
Ordinary objects transformed into contemporary cultural artifacts.
Visitor Book
Leave your memory.
Your response can become part of the evolving archive of Ecuador Nostalgia.
Visitor submissions will be activated when the website form service is connected.
Art preserves what memory refuses to forget.
Iván Orquera
Atelier Orquera Art
Carry the story beyond the exhibition.
This page was created as the digital companion to Ecuador Nostalgia. Share it, revisit the works and follow the evolution of the collection.
Contact Atelier Orquera