An ongoing search for identity in unfamiliar surroundings
Vollition Gender Design Award iphiGenia 2025
Gabriela Parra Sánchez is an artist currently studying in Berlin. Born in the Colombian Andes, her work stages the warm, fertile spirit of her homeland in contrast to the meticulous coolness of Germany. In her experimental graphic and typographic work, unusual connections emerge between text and context. Drawing on her own experiences of migration, she aims to shift and unsettle the different social conventions – questioning their origins with both humour and poetic subtlety.
Futuras Posibles was developed from a postcolonial perspective — that of a woman from the Global South within a German academic environment. Gabriela’s own migration experiences shape her work in a sensitive and deeply personal way. She translates her narratives of migration into her own design practices, opening up new spaces for dialogue and coexistence across cultural differences. In this way, she demonstrates how design itself can be transformed – and decolonised.
This study project demonstrates, in a socially relevant yet highly individual way, the transformative potential of gender design: presenting migration as an ongoing negotiation of identity, belonging, inclusion and marginalisation. It engages deeply with concepts such as ambiguity, temporality and transformation, translating them into design-relevant insights that arise from the lived experience of migration, displacement and forced exile.
By placing personal experience and reflection in a socio-political context, Futuras Posibles shows how design can critically engage with intersecting cultural and social dimensions in order to imagine a fairer and more liveable future. The strength of the project lies partly in the way it bridges intimate, personal and individual aspects with systemic ones. It offers a poetic, self-reflective and socially critical contribution towards fostering non-discriminatory design practices.
