TRANSBORDER TRAJECTORIES


A series that maps the journey of objects currently sold at the Mercado de Artesanias de La Linea at the Tijuana/San Diego border. In the Market, products produced in Tijuana or in the interior of Mexico representing traditionally Mexican symbols, have been almost entirely replaced by American pop cultural icons like Tweety, Homer Simpson, and Mickey Mouse—shifting the symbolic origin of objects. 

The physical provenance of the products has also changed as the market has been flooded with cheap imitations of traditional Mexican goods manufactured outside of Mexico, primarily in China.

These shifts in provenance, both symbolic and physical, catalyzed a change in the traditional north oriented trajectory of artisan products, forcing goods and images to flow through new corridors. These corridors were made possible by NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), which allowed the free flow of goods across the border, while making it less and less permeable for people. 

The tightening of the border is juxtaposed in the project with the reality that this zone is culturally and commercially bisected and interrelated.