Exhibition in Arizona denounces immigration drama on the border with art

Tucson (AZ), 25 Mar The exhibition “Where Dreams Die/Where Dreams Die”, which can be visited from this Friday at the Center for the Arts in the town of Tubac, Arizona, shows different forms of art the immigration drama that takes place every day on the border between the United States and Mexico. The exhibition, which brings together a dozen artists from both sides of the border, includes photographs, sculptures and paintings that reflect the suffering migrants experience every day as they seek a better life in this country. An example is the painting by artist Luis Sotero entitled “Migrant Christ”, which shows a Border Patrol agent pointing Jesus Christ in the head, who is lying in the desert covered in a white robe and holding a gallon of water in his hand. Another work shows a series of wooden crosses that pay tribute to migrants who have died in their attempt to cross the border and enter the United States. “We cannot just close our eyes to the human tragedy that is being experienced in this region. Every migrant has a name, a story,” Efe Álvaro Enciso, one of the participating artists, told Efe Álvaro Enciso. Enciso, of Colombian origin, spends his time building wooden crosses and placing them in places where bodies of migrants have been found in the Arizona desert. The exhibition, which ends on April 3, also shows a work by Michele Maggiora consisting of a cage full of dolls symbolizing migrant children separated from their parents during the administration of now former President Donald Trump (2017-2021). Other photographs and paintings show how the desert has been divided in two by the border wall, as well as the paths that migrants follow and the objects they leave on their way. “This is a striking exhibition that brings migration to life through the performance of artists on both sides of the border,” Karon Leigh, artistic director of the Tubac Center for the Arts, told Efe. Humanitarian groups in Arizona have documented the deaths of more than 3,700 migrants in the past 16 years. CHIEF ml/msc (photo)