We are in the collective exposition Second Version. In it you can see some of the works of the Huí jiá series. Where did you start this exhibition?
Commissioners Havi [weecolors] and Aimar [Arriola] wrote to me, because they wanted to do an exhibition with Basque artists. I knew Havi from the art world of Madrid, but not Aimar. The title of the exhibition was chosen at the end, with the selection made, and it talks about the return and the processes. In the case of my work it makes sense for the works that are presented [huí jiāk means returning home] and also because I feel that a new version of my person and my project is beginning. It was very special.

This is your first exhibition in Euskal Herria. How are you?
I am very happy. The project started in Eibar, with the friends here, and it's been very nice. People liked it very much and I received a lot of affection.

Several photographs have been selected in this exhibition, but the Huí jiá series is wider. The
project started around 2018, and it didn't start as a project, it's taken shape. At first I made self-portraits in my house, it was nothing. Or, I mean, there was something, but it wasn't a project. Then, over time, I started working on the file, and that's where the discourse was developed, alone. Huí jiāk means going home, in Chinese. I fled means time, round, turning around and coming back, and jiāk the house and the family. The project plays with this polysemy and documents my identity processes, but it also talks about the family, the family you create, the adoption and the racialization. In short, it documents my personal journey in many ways. It also talks about age: I started the project at 20 years old, and now I'm 26. This development is also noted.

The first photos of the series were made in Eibar, but as a project it has become a reality in Madrid, a city where you lived six years ago. Has it had to do with the development of the project with the community you've found there? It's
interesting because the project also talks about it. My identity process started when I became aware of being a racialized person, and that was before I went to Madrid, around 2018. I met an anti-racist collective in Bilbao and, first of all, I was aware of being a rationalized woman. The first seed was produced in Eibar.

Then, in Madrid, being away from home and having the family away, in the end it makes you pull the rope and I started gradually a process of transition in Madrid. Every house that I have lived has opened a possibility, and you see that evolution in the photos [all the photos are made at home, both in Euskal Herria and in those that he has had residence in Madrid]. For example, I made one of the photos of the exhibition in my second home in Madrid, and there I would say that my transition is already present. I would say I had the first awareness that I was a boy, and then I realized I was a Chinese. In a way, every house forced me to look further inside.

In the exhibition, above all, there are self-portraits, but the series is not just composed of them, right?
The other pictures in the series are portraits and my family is selected. My friends here, my sister, my parents, the people I've later met in Madrid, and each of those portraits, I think it talks about one aspect. In the end, even if they're portraits, they're self-portraits. For example, there's a portrait of a friend of mine and his son. Mary is called a friend, son Ryu, and that portrait was my first approach to Asian culture. Or, for example, I went to Madrid with my partner, who then broke up, and there are a lot of his serial photos. I guess through my former partner I learned masculinity. I think the people in the project are as important as I am. Each one shows one aspect.

In the photos you have also worked on the issue of adoption. He was born in China and grew up in Eibar by adoption. You said that the adoption system, as it stands at present, involves a process of adaptation and a process of elimination. You also become aware of being a racialized person at the age of 20, first as a Chinese woman and, after the transition, as a Chinese man. How do you remember childhood and youth?
Buf. Interestingly, I've never been asked that in this context. In this aspect, youth and childhood in Eibar… Well, it is very complex. In my case, so many things come together. I think he was very convicted. They're very lonely processes, you don't have a chance to share them with anyone. After all, it's inside you and you live in solitude. The people around you don't have the same experience, or the tools to work it out. I would say that I do not have a word to say. In my case, it has been a process of many years and the result of personal work.

We mentioned the gender transition: it has room in the fotos.La
photography has been by my side throughout the process and is nice. In short, these pictures have made the current person. I see these pictures and I feel very young, I feel a lot of respect. For me it's very nice to see the trip I've made in pictures.

He has recently begun to perform performances in the exhibition space (yesterday you made one in Donostia). How did it get started?
My first show was in Madrid, where I did my first performance. I felt that the exhibition itself was another house of mine, and I wanted to portray them because, of course, I always do them. In addition, I think performance and exposure are a good combination. So I invited some friends and said, "Let's do something. To have fun.”

Then I made another solo show in Barcelona, where I already made a public performance. The idea came to me in a very natural way. As I said, the exhibition itself is an invitation to come to my house, and I want people, the audience, to feel at home. That's what I want to achieve with performances.

How has the reception of your work been?
So far, everything has been very positive. Most of the people who come to the exhibitions are people who move around the world of Kuir. But I've also been very welcoming in the world of photography and art. Everything has been very generous.

In many photos you are naked. You also undressed for performance. Naked bodies have been shown in a certain way in art, and it has not been common to see dissident and racialized bodies of gender as self-representation, and not as fetishization or exotization. That seemed very powerful to me. Have you had these thoughts in your head while you were working?
Yes, of course. It is my need and it speaks of self-representation. After all, I have not seen a body that resembles my body without exoticist and fetish looks, and in the end what I want is to show what I am. Naturalize, maybe.

And after all, take power. Our bodies have always been seen from each other, and I wanted to break with that look. I take power and decide how I represent myself. And then there's a psychological, therapeutic aspect. I think there's a lot out there.

In another performance you worked Asian masculinity exactly.
This performace I made with a friend, it was a way to activate the exhibition. He also has a lot of interest in this issue, and it was the first experiment. Then I developed it more, but then it was a choreography, there was also video, my friend Julio [Hu Chen] did other activities. On the other hand, before the performance we held an interview about Asian masculinity.

What did you talk about?
Good question. We brought a book that mentions many authors, but we especially mentioned one of them, Tseng Kwong Chi, Chinese-American author, as I assumed his role in the performance.

We mostly talk about that difference between being a Chinese woman and being a Chinese man. Changes between the two. After all, what I'm saying is that racialized people don't just change gender, transition also affects rationalization. It's not the same thing to be a Chinese woman as to be a Chinese man. And I say Chinese because I'm Chinese, but in other races it's also, it's not the same as being a woman as a man. In rationalization, gender changes everything.

What did you notice the difference after the transition?
Especially in the expression and desire of sexuality. According to the white view, the female Chinese body suffers hypersexualization. On the other hand, the Chinese male body is desexted. At the same time, the Chinese body generally goes through feminization processes. Therefore, I think that transmasculinity demands both points of view, I like to think that in such concrete processes of change, a third point of view is created.

It is undeniable that in this society it is easier to be a child. I would say that I have more respect for others. I think it is very clear from the attacks on the streets. Now I live the public space more safely.

In the artistic field, what are your references?
A lot. Tomoko Sawada, for example, is a Japanese artist who has a photomaton project. In the photos he always appears, but he changes clothes and hair, for example, and I think it's very interesting because he talks about identity. The photos are like those of the ID, and although it always appears, it shows different people at the same time. This project is a great inspiration to me. I'm also interested in classic photographers like Robert Mapplethorpe or Peter Hujar. And my friends are also my inspiration. Some to say.

Going back to the core of the exhibition, what is it for you to go home?
Well, I think going home is always asking who I am. Like a blank sheet. I like the term of returning home: in the end, the house is inside you, it is not out. When we make transitions or processes, we always think they're out, but yes and no. In part they are outside of you: as I said before, you are also in the other, in that person that helps you, that shapes you in some way, but for me the identity is inside, and going home is something like this: as you decorate and take care of your home, it is asking myself, at all times, how do I want to build my house.

And I like the term of going back home, because on a philosophical or spiritual level, it talks about how I build myself now, how I'm going to do it on this occasion, but above all that other idea, which is inside of me and is not a destination, a point that I have to get to, even though that's thought of almost every process. Capitalism, right? You seem to have to find something out, up and up, but in the end, what we are is inside of us, not out. And that's it all.

What do you do now?
Now I'm making exhibitions and performances above all. Next month I have an exhibition in Huelva and with the Cibrian gallery we will go to Paris to a market, Paris Internationale. In addition, I'm taking pictures in a photo studio in Madrid.

Are you happy?
Yes, a lot. I would also like to show my work in Bilbao, in the Basque Country in general, but above all in Bilbao. My sister lives there, and many times I go home, I have friends…

Lately, you're also writing. He has posted several texts on Instagram: letters and others.
This month I have written a lot and I want to combine photos and text. I'm trying things.
I wanted to mention exactly one publication. You did this reflection: “Today I feel that I am “eta”, that separates “and” at the same time / that separates “and” the man / “and” the woman / Chinese “and” the Basque / biological son “and” the adopted child / cis “and” to the transe / I am a meeting point / I move / from one side to another / in a permanent search of the self / the other”.

After all, we are always choosing: from here or there, but we are everything. We're not one thing. Personally, in my case, but I think no one is a single thing, not even a very closed thing. We are everything and we move with time. It's life, isn't it?