Nothing to Declare: Transnational Narratives

Nothing to Declare: Transnational Narratives
Curated by Ginger Shulick Porcella

Each year, millions of people cross the border from Nogales, Mexico into Arizona. With 11.8 million people living along the U.S.—Mexico border, the wall has become an important symbol of both freedom and restriction on both sides. Nothing to Declare: Transnational Narratives is a multi-disciplinary exhibition that explores the real-world aspects surrounding border issues. This exhibition will engage in dialogue with and activate the community to explore the complexity of issues surrounding immigration and global borders, not limited to those that are physical but also psychological, while simultaneously considering other architectures and means of oppression. The exhibition documents the historic struggles of this problematic region and the ongoing resistance by contemporary artists to confront the past and shape the future, while digging deep into environmental and human rights issues, labor, and the use of language as a form of subversion and unity along the border. By exploring seemingly disparate places, themes emerge, such as the proliferation of fear and the decline of reason in our current political climate.

Participating Artists:

Lana Z. Caplan (San Luis Obispo, CA) has been recognized by grants and awards at various exhibitions and festivals, including Audience Award at the Crossroads Film Festival (San Francisco) and Director’s Prize at Black Maria Film Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Chicago Underground Film Festival, L’Alternativa Independent Film Festival (Barcelona), Anthology Film Archives (New York City), Alchemy Film Festival (Hawick, Scotland), Currents New Media Festival (Santa Fe), Antimatter (Victoria, BC), Inside Out Art Museum (Beijing), Havana Film Festival, National Gallery (Puerto Rico), Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo (Mexico City).

Saulo Cisneros (Mexicali, Baja MX) is a documentary video artist and photographer whose work has been exhibited across California and Mexico. He a recipient of a PECDA state grant from Mexico to create the documentary Suena a Tijuana and his work has most recently been included in the Bienal Ciudad Juárez—El Paso Biennial and at CECUT in Tijuana.

Wesley Fawcett Creigh (Tucson, AZ) creates work that aims to bring the arts into community spaces, foster a sense of creative placemaking, and bring overlooked issues into the forefront of a broader community dialogue. Her work has often focused on sharing personal and community narratives as a means of promoting social justice for individuals and groups. She is a recent awardee of a Puffin Foundation Grant and an artist residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute.

Miguel Fernández de Castro (Altar, Sonora MX) works on long term discursive research projects at the intersection of writing and visual arts. His work has been shown at Museum of Modern Art of Mexico, Mexico City; Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver; Museum of Latin American Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, Monterrey; Museum of San Ildefonso, Mexico City; and Jaus Gallery, Los Angeles. He won the Acquisition Prize of the X Biennial FEMSA, Monterrey and The Tierney Fellowship, New York. His project, A microhistory of YouTube was produced in Beirut at Ashkal Alwan, and he recently completed a residency at PAOS, Guadalajara.

Einar & Jamex de le Torre (Ensenada, Baja MX) are brothers who create collaborative contemporary glass and installation work. They have had solo museum exhibitions at the Tucson Museum of Art, ASU Art Museum, the Craft and Folk Art Museum, Fort Collins Museum of Art, and the National Museum of Mexican Art to name just a few. They are currently represented by Koplin Del Rio, Traver Gallery, Mindy Solomon Gallery, and Galerie Pokorna.

Blane de St. Croix (Brooklyn, NY) has widely exhibited nationally and internationally, with solo exhibitions at Blue Star Contemporary, Wave Hill, Smack Mellon, and Laumeier Sculpture Park to name just a few. He is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, the John Mitchell Foundation Grant, The Pollack Krasner Foundation Grant, the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, and an NEA Fellowship in Sculpture. He is currently represented by Fredericks and Freiser, and has an upcoming solo exhibition at MASS MoCA.

Francisco Eme (Mexico City, MX and San Diego, CA) creates electroacoustic compositions, multimedia installations, interventions and performances that immerse the audience into a world rich in symbols and poetics. Interested in the everyday situations of life and reflecting on social interactions in the world today, Francisco uses visualization as a compositional element. His works have been presented across México, United States, England, Spain, France, Italy, Czech Republic, Canada, Colombia, Argentina and El Salvador.

Louis Hock (Encinitas, CA) creates films, videos, and media installations that have been exhibited in solo shows at numerous national and international art institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Getty Museum, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Louis is Professor Emeritus of Visual Art at the University of California, San Diego.

Khaled Jarrar (Ramallah, Palestine and Tucson, AZ) creates work that explores the impact of modern- day power struggles on ordinary citizens, while seeking to maximize the social potential of artistic interventions. His work has been show across the world in venues such as the New Museum (NY), Aga Khan Museum (Toronto), USF Contemporary Art Museum (Tampa), and the 7th Berlin Biennale.

Haydeé Jiménez (Tijuana, Baja MX) is a cultural producer and transdisciplinary artist. She creates experimental electronic music (Hidhawk / AyDD / Mundotheque / Tree Sap / Dagmar Midcap) and promotes fellow sound artists of the transnational region through Borderland Noise—a community- driven experimental electronic music series, tour, and festival (Because We Love You Fest).

PANCA (Tijuana, Baja MX) is a renowned Mexican-American street artist and muralist whose work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across Mexico and the United States. She has created murals for the Museo del Juguete Antiguo in Mexico City, Steve Turner Contemporary in Tijuana, and the San Diego Art Institute to name just a few.

Omar Pimienta (Tijuana, Baja MX and San Diego, CA) is a contemporary artist whose work has been shown around the world in galleries and museums such as The Getty, The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Museum of Latin American Art, HERLEV Institute in Denmark, Oceanside Museum of Art, Centro Cultural Tijuana, LACE, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Oaxaca, and Centro Cultural de Espana in Buenos Aires to name just a few.

Marcos Ramirez ERRE (Tijuana, Baja MX) has participated in exhibitions across the globe, including InSite94, InSite97, the VI and VII Havana Biennials, the Whitney Biennial 2000, the second Moscow Biennial, the San Juan Poly/Graphic Triennial, the 2007 Sao Paulo /Valencia Biennial, the California Biennial 08, the Zero One Biennial, and The Site Santa Fe Biennial, to name a few.