Sculpture hand-modeled in clay and on the wheel, embellished with acrylic paint, satin ribbon, and lace.

Sculpture dimensions:
35 cm height x 35 cm diameter

Wooden base dimensions:
8 cm height x 40 cm diameter

Enriqueta’s smile stems from the centenary of the artist’s grandmother’s birth and an apparently simple question: how can we imagine the childhood of those we only know as adults?

The work represents Enriqueta’s childhood, recovering a stage prior to the roles of mother and grandmother that would later define her place within the family. Through this representation, the piece proposes looking at grandparents from a different perspective: recognizing that before becoming family figures, they were also children, had games, toys, dreams, and a particular relationship with their own time.

The ceramics and textile elements linked to the traditional and the domestic build an image permeated by nostalgia. The smile becomes a bond between past and present, between the girl she was and the memory that remains of her.

The piece thus functions as a tribute to Enriqueta, but also as a starting point for a broader reflection on childhood, memory, and generational legacy. From the intimate, the work seeks to recover those childhoods that remain behind family photographs, objects, and stories, inviting us to recognize in our grandparents not only who they were, but also who they once began as—children.