Martín Zícari is an historian working on the problem of enforced disappearances in Mexico. He is completing a Ph.D at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, under a European Research Council grant. Martín Zícari es un historiador trabajando sobre la problemática de la desaparición forzada en México. Realiza un doctorado en la KU Leuven con una beca del ERC.
Started in 2018 through a Magnum Foundation grant, this project combines poetry and photography to investigate the intersection of religion and migration in the borderlands of Arizona and Sonora, the ancestral land of the Tohono O’odham.
This section of the U.S.-Mexico border separates not only the Tohono O’odham people, but their sacred sites and ancestral land. Since the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and later the Gadsden Purchase, the O’odham were repeatedly divided and clustered by federal laws.
The threat of the wall being built on the border is a threat to their sovereignty. Today, the desert is a scene of violence and brutality. Overwhelmed by U.S. immigration policies, migrants cross the desert risking their lives. Adding to the death and destruction on ancestral land is a generalized state of violence along the border. Entire towns, like Cu:wi I-gersk, have been abandoned as the O’odham fled for their safety.
Photography of the border often reflects the dualism it portrays: we see either the Mexican side or the U.S. side, since the photographer is embedded with a migrant caravan, or the border patrol. This collaboration seeks to suspend the dualism and, through poetry and photography, enter a space of reflection about what remains when the border is not there.
Artist Bios
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Gareth Smit
Gareth Smit is a documentary photographer working in issues related to migration, race, identity, and violence. Gareth Smit es un fotógrafo documental. Su trabajo trata temas de migración, raza, identidad y violencia.
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Ofelia Zepeda
Ofelia Zepeda is an O’odham poet and Regents’ professor of O’odham language and linguistics at the University of Arizona. Ofelia Zepeda es una poeta O´dham y profesora en la Universidad de Arizona donde enseña lingüística y lengua O´odham.
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Martín Zícari
Organizations
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Magnum Foundation
Magnum Foundation expands creativity and diversity in visual storytelling, activating new audiences and ideas through the innovative use of images. Through grants, mentorship, and creative collaborations, we partner with socially engaged imagemakers exploring new models for storytelling. Since our founding in 2007 by members of the Magnum Photos cooperative, we have made more than 600 direct grants to visual storytellers from over 80 countries. To find out about upcoming exhibitions and events, learn about grant opportunities, or join our community of support, please visit magnumfoundation.org
The Place Where Clouds Are Formed
Featuring: Gareth Smit Ofelia Zepeda Martín Zícari
Curated by: Kristen Lubben
Locations
View Location Details Download a detailed map of this location Brooklyn Bridge Park – Emily Warren Roebling Plaza1 Water St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
This location is part of Brooklyn Bridge Park
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