Being for Others, born from the unexpected passing of my father in 2021, forced me to face the painful challenge of overcoming geographical distance in my situation as an immigrant bearing an expired Venezuelan passport at a time of personal mourning and mobility restrictions on a global scale. This installation is grounded in this intimate personal context but proposes an expansive reflection on identity and transit across physical and bureaucratic space. This project is a beacon of hope for those grappling with the disorientation of force-displacement and those navigating the complexities of sovereignty infringement.
A participatory installation that projects personal portraits and photographs from collaborators, accompanied by an audio poem I wrote. The accompanying poem is recited by participants of different nationalities, most immigrants, who read an adaptation of the text in their native language. Over 242 personal portraits are accompanied by an audio poem translated into 22 languages by 70 collaborators. This spectral, confounding quality of this ensemble unframes memory as an embodied experience operating at an individual level, instead pointing to the diffusion of reminiscences across the collective, questioning the relationship between memory and identity. This ongoing project that welcomes spectators to rethink the value of empathy in times of immigration crisis and multiracial acculturation in today’s societal discussions and political campaigns.
On this occasion. The multisensorial installation consisted of a block of ice that filters a projected family portrait, accompanied by an audio poem. The photographic image is synchronized to shrink gradually over 24 hours, as the ice on which it is projected melts away. It echoes notions of identity as a liquid state. ¨The invitation to recognize the depth of an identity that “spills over,” “dissolves,” and “evaporates,” an identity that thus resists being flattened.¨ Irina Troconis.
INSTALLATION IN ANTE AMERICA EXHIBITION - ARTBO 2020
INSTALLATION IN ANTE AMERICA EXHIBITION - ARTBO 2020
This time, I used the river as a natural border, a body of water that is continually changing.