WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND
January 06, 2023 to June 04, 2023
What We Leave Behind invites viewers to examine the notion of global mobility as a fundamental human right. In works by artists Juan Carlos Alom, Norma Vila Rivero, Lilliam Nieves, Sandra Ramos, and Luis Palacios Kaim, the exhibition explores the causes of the contemporary diaspora as well as the consequences of the surveillance state and a global border apparatus. It questions the systems that commodify bodies and allow the free movement of goods, businesses, and a corporate class, while criminalizing those who seek to escape violence and uninhabitable spaces.
What We Leave Behind evaluates the network of forces that compel many to leave “home” and the challenges encountered through borderization. Adopting Achille Mbembe’s inquiries, it asks, “What, then, is this ‘borderization,’ if not the process by which world powers permanently transform certain spaces into impassable places for certain classes of populations? What is it about, if not the conscious multiplication of spaces of loss and mourning, where the lives of a multitude of people judged to be undesirable come to be shattered?” Other themes in the exhibition include family separation, the failures of modernization, climate change, and domestic violence.
The exhibition’s title, What We Leave Behind, is inspired by the documentary of the same name, by Director Ileana Sosa (2022), that focuses on relationships, memory, and transnational interactions. Both the exhibition and documentary embrace the concepts of mobility and of freedom. As the Cuban-born artist Sandra Ramos has stated, “I wish there were a bridge not only for the Strait of Florida but for every geographical point in dissension; for every place where it is necessary and advantageous for people to step across. For those countless places where man wants to try his luck, take shelter, work or join his brothers. I wish there were bridges, thousands of surprising and mysterious bridges that like the Nautilus would carry us into the deep waters of freedom….”
Very excited with my upcoming talk this afternoon at @jsmauo @sandraramosart Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art / ENCOUNTERS WITH CONTEMPORARY ART: A CONVERSATION WITH SANDRA RAMOS
ZOOM WEBINAR
Wed, 05/17/2023 - 4:00pm
Register here: https://uoregon.zoom.us/.../reg.../WN_D2wiG0cPSYm3JmGBc1iJuw
Zoom webinar stats at 4 p.m. (PST)
As part of the exhibit What We Leave Behind, join us in a conversation with artist Sandra Ramos for an overview of the artist’s artistic trajectory and ongoing projects. Ramos will discuss the contemporary diaspora, social dislocation, and resilience as well as isolation, abandonment, and challenges encountered due to immigration. These themes and others are seen throughout her oeuvre as well as in her artwork Esclavos del amor, en mi cárcel de papel, and prisioneros del tiempo, on view in What We Leave Behind.
