TINA B Festival Prague Czech Republic 2010

Grimanesa Amorós
(Peru)

La Maleta Del Inmigrante

The marbles inside the suitcase represent the dreams, memes and schemes that we take with us when we go to a new place. The mirrored surface inside reflects the viewer literally in the way that someone’s belonging reflects them figuratively. In other words, we are what we bring with us.

Remolino

Remolino is a site-specific public art project at 161-01 Jamaica Avenue, commissioned by the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning. It is a part of the Jamica Flux: Workspaces and Windows 2007 exhibition, a multi-disciplinary and co-curatorial project aimed at encouraging artists to engage in a dialogue with the community, residences, and businesses of Jamaica through their creative activities. This project is part of the ongoing effort to revitalize the neighborhood, and to provide amenities and enriching cultural programmes for the public.

The juxtaposition of faces with images of flowing water is suggestive of the movement within the community, the merging of people from all imaginable origins on the vibrant sidewalks of Jamaica Avenue. The fusing, transformation, and scattering of these same faces force the viewer to interrogate the nature of individuality and ask how a shared identity can be forged out of dissimilarity.