CIVILIANS
In light of the tendency to dehumanize those affected by the violence in Mexico converting them to numbers and statistics, reclaiming and circulating their experiences, could help the construction of an arena for discussion on the surrounding reality.
It is important to know the stories of those who live in such a state of emergency.
THE PROCESS
Making multimedia installations is only the final stage of the research and production process, including various work phases. This process entails research and documentation, the creation of a small group of multidisciplinary advisors, making interviews and digital sound and video recordings of urban and rural areas of Mexico.
V.[u]nf_1
V.[u]nf_1 consists of 74 digital audio players shaped like a Caracal F 9x19 mm pistol. Each of these sound devices is integrated with a Micro-SD card containing the audio recording, in mp3 format, of a shoot-out. Audio is taken from cell phone video recordings made by citizens who find themselves trapped in dangerous situations and later put into circulation via online platforms like YouTube.
V.[u]nf_2
V.[u]nf_2 explore the consequences of the violence in the daily life, especially among orphan children and family members of missing individuals. The project is based on working with infants victims of violence through artistic practices, the use of technology and the creation of safe spaces.
V.[u]nf_3
V.[u]nf_3 is a collaborative audiovisual cyber-cartography that allows for memory construction around the search for victims of forced disappearance in Mexico. V.[u]nf_3 consists of developing a mobile phone and web-based application for the female collective Las Rastreadoras — based in Los Mochis, in Sinaloa.
V.[u]nf_4
V.[u]nf_4 is an eight-channel participatory acoustic installation that presents a multilayered sound construction made after recordings of search activities of the collective Las Rastreadoras de El Fuerte, in Los Mochis, in the northern state of Sinaloa in Mexico. Recordings were made in February 2019. Las Rastreadoras de El Fuerte go on search trips twice a week, looking for the remains of family members and other individuals, victims of forced disappearance. V.[u]nf_4 is also comprised of a two-channel sound sculpture and at least five tools shaped in a “T” form -a sculptural component that Rastreadoras de El Fuerte use to drill holes in the ground and detect the smell of human remains, which then indicates where they should dig.
THE ARCHIVE
Parts of the project are incorporated into a Repository. This tool allows for the collection of information. The complete repository includes maps, photographs, videos, sound files, and digital documents generated through the production process.
RELATED ART PROJECTS
Vis. [un]necessary force continues the exploration on which I have been working since 2006, and in which I have addressed the Mexican diaspora in the US [2487 and riverbank], the normalization of violence in the Mexican media [detritus], the exacerbated violence on the US-Mexico border [Police Radio Frequencies], and recently the micro-soundscapes of the civil society who live immersed in violence [V.[u]nf].