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OTRO MUNDO NOS ESPERA
2017 Otro Mundo Nos Espera speaks from the nearness of afar, from the space in-between, providing glimpses of other worlds and other lives lived along, across, and in spite of borders like the one that separates the U.S. and Mexico. Produced through a series of workshops facilitated by Cog•nate Collective with students in the San Diego State University Chicana/Chicano Studies program in the Spring and Fall 2017 semesters, this multi-media project took shape from conversations on the role cultural production can play in fomenting political dialogue, honing in on the ways art can construct alter-native frameworks to contemplate the San Diego/Tijuana border region. This became the basis of the series of performative sci-fi- inspired gestures of Otro Mundo Nos Espera (OMNE). The title, which translates to “another world awaits us”, is reference to the possibility of beginning to craft a better, more just, more inclusive world through the realm of art and culture, and more specifically through/in dialogue with the “other” – with those who are not from here, with those who appear to be different from us. To this end, OMNE seeks to create trans-border encounters of a close kind, with the certainty that another world is not only possible, but that it already exists, and it is anxiously awaiting our arrival. |
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Collaborations with SDSU students in the Spring semester, culminated in interventions which included:
- A special iteration of Dialogue in Transit, broadcasting a sonic journey through border spaces near and far +info. - A pop-up radio + listening-station installed as part of the ArtPOP! Festival at SDSU to share short stories, interviews and musical selections that explore the notion of “alien” encounters in relation to the US/Mexico border. - A May Day station at SDSU inviting students to reflect on questions of home, identity and otherness. In exchange for their participation, students received a special-edition T-shirt which grants their wearers admission to the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego +info |
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Collaborations with SDSU Chicana/o Studies students in the Fall semester continued to take cues from NASA’s Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) projects which sought to establish contact with extra-terrestrials by offering glimpses + introductions to the human race, opening the door for communication (by leaving our number so-to-speak).
One such initiative was the Golden Record, a 12-inch copper phonograph record placed on the Voyager 1 & 2 space probes containing audio recordings + images from earth – a time-capsule of sorts to represent the human race for extra-terrestrial beings who might one day encounter the space-crafts. On the 40th anniversary of their launch into space, students created a localized iteration of this record, recording + representing the US/Mexico border for an audience “out there”, who may be unfamiliar with the site and the communities who inhabit it. The record, along with documentation of previous interventions were on view as part of the "Otro Mundo Nos Espera" exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego from November 2017 - January 2018. You can listen to an excerpt of the audio component of the project below. |
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