Ring Master calling the street performance to begin 2017, Performance documentation, Plaza de Panama, Balboa Park, San Diego.

slideshow with a selection of additional performances

Transnational Seminar II

In 2017, as residents of the borderlands of San Diego-Tijuana, we witnessed increased xenophobia, anti-Mexican sentiment and the resulting harm to our communities as a direct result of the “Build the Wall!” chanting and ongoing discriminatory commentary by the federal leadership of the United States. As artists, our response was to use strategies from contemporary performance art, art as activism and the public consciousness raising methods of Agusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed to develop the Transnational Seminar II as a praxis workshop for the experimental production of a borderlands street theater.
 
Visual Art students from the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Tijuana and the University of California San Diego, La Jolla were invited to apply to participate in the 12-weeks of the Transnational Seminar II– Art & Action in the Public Domain. The seminar art production was dedicated to the development of street performances as a means for participants to share their own lived experiences and perspectives with the local public in both cities. The subjects of the resulting performances were: A satirical border wall prototype fashion show, the reenactment of observations from our experiences interacting with US Customs and Border Patrol, and an interactive performance of the ‘privilege walk’ exercise, among others.
 
These performances were developed with our regular crossing of the US/MX border and convening as a nomadic studio in locations across both cities; while experiencing artworks, texts, art exercises, and ongoing dialog and exchange.
 
Studio & Performance Locations
The location that served to host the seminar sessions, production and rehearsal space in Tijuana was split between Out Here Gallery (Art Gallery and Studio of artists Luisa Martínez and David Peña) and Estación Federal (Public, Retail, Living, Co-Working Space and Art Gallery). In San Diego the seminar was hosted by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.
 
The public spaces used for planning and performing street theater in San Diego included the main busy tourist centers of: Balboa Park (historic, urban cultural park), Old Town (national park with historic colonial and Mexican themes– was ultimately rejected for feeling uncomfortably political to the group), as well as the America Plaza Trolley Station, the Santa Fe Depot and MCASD. In Tijuana, the public spaces used for street theater performances included the main tourist centers of: Plaza Santa Cecilia (Popular Mexican Square), and Avenida Revolución (main thoroughfare of historic downtown Tijuana) as well as the Pasaje Rodriguez (“arcade” style commercial center frequented by both locals and tourists).
 
This project was supported by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and an Exploring Engagement Grant from the James Irvine Foundation.

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//Interactive Timeline// with Local, Global, and Transnational Seminar events that informed our collaborative production.

*see pt 1 here