Initial Steps: Reflection of "Ni Chana Tijuana"
Mario Mesquita
The culmination of our research and fieldwork in Camino Verde, Tijuana, México, ended in the exposition Ni Chana Tijuana. The deliberately named exposition of our research refers back to a Mexican saying “ni chana ni Juana” unraveled the question of “what happens when a group of people […] develop fieldwork within a community across the border.” The exposition explored the dependent relationship developed between us as artists, and the Tijuana neighborhood of Camino Verde. “Ni chana ni Juana” refers to ambiguousness, neither here nor there, a sense in which we as artists felt in building links to the community of Camino Verde and a sense in which the neighborhood seemed to challenge by proclaiming its existence on the foundations of a community in constant transition.
Being unclear of our purpose as artists entering Camino Verde left ample room for discussion and questioning the field research we were to conduct. Questions arose regarding why we were entering a community across the border and concerns of exploitation and reciprocity surfaced out of healthy discussion amongst us students and faculty. The questions seemed to surround the undefined role of an artist in a community that we were, are, and may in the future be welcomed in, and challenged with, to develop projects collaboratively. Despite this ambiguous sense, I have never felt so supported and untied within a group. I was excited, and continue to be, involved with artists who had similar questions and concerns.
Three weekend trips were too short to feel fully immersed in the community. This was a personal realization. Out of this, I recognize that I need either a longer concentrated stays with the community or more short visits to in order to collaborate. It was not until the end of the second visit to Camino Verde that I felt comfortable and familiar enough to begin to explore the physical environment and strike up conversations with people on the street. With a background as a visual artist and graphic designer, I initially wondered what sort of project I was to come up with in collaboration with community members I had met in such a little time.
After countless hours of panic, questioning, and contemplation, it became clear to me that it was not an end project that we were to plan or implement, but rather the real purpose of this experience was to initiate the groundwork it takes, to first, enter a community. This can be any place, across the border or in the States, invited or potentially chose to be entered. It was confirmed, after every talk with artist and collective, of the importance of the artist in situating them/ourselves in open conversation with the community that we are invited to or enter. It is only this way that a two-way conversation can be nurtured. Where the artist shares their skills and is open to learn from the community they enter and where community shares their experience and learn from the artist. Time and time again, from collectives to artists, from Polen Audiovisual to ERRE, the most successful projects where one’s that developed a relationship of reciprocity.
As there was a shift of perception within the group of the purpose of the course from the assumed end project to a focus on initiating steps in entering a collaborative project, the group felt it necessary to reframe the notion of the exhibit. The “exhibit” alludes to a finished polished show, while “exposition,” or “exposición” in Spanish better relates and fits within the nature our research and sharing of our experiences. We deliberately used the Spanish term “exposición” as it refers both to the nature of an artist show while at the same time refers to being in an exposed position. The senses of feeling exposed and even vulnerable were important emotions to share as at one point or another we all experienced them during this course. Some of us decided to tackle these feelings during their research and others chose to focus efforts on moving forward in recognition of these feelings and build relationships of sharing with newly formed friendships.
Though some relationships built over the three visits to Tijuana were short moments of interaction, they were, and still are, rooted in finding commonality and understanding of the human experience between participants. I believe meeting members of Camino Verde and a greater artist community of Tijuana, was the most important lesson of this field research. In fact, it is on the small-scale human interaction and conversation that I ended up focusing my artist project/experiment for the exposition held at 18th Street Arts Center.
With a graphic design background, all the colorful imagery and graphic representation interested me during my excursions in Camino Verde. My eyes followed the trails of a pastel color palette of greens, mauves, and yellows, to the brightly painted electric blues and oranges of political and pop signage against stark white walls. These all represented different components of the neighborhood, and I become interested in seeing how individuals saw themselves represented in these visual cues. After an inspiring conversation with Adriana Trujillo, member of Polen Audiovisual, video artist collective we worked with and acted as community liaison, about my interest, we discovered we had similar interests in community, self-representation and pride in one’s own neighborhood.
Combining some of Adriana’s ideas and knowledge of Camino Verde, after a couple years working within the neighborhood, and my initial interest and graphical background, I initially came up with a proposal that would feature members of the neighborhood on banners or flags to be posted around the soccer field or poles surrounding the Community Center. This project would be only possible by community involvement. As proposed, it would be up to community members to decide whom to feature on these banners, including children, grandparents, sports team, and even those that have died, were lost, crossed the border, or are in jail. Both Adriana and I talked about the importance of an honest representation of the community: the good, the bad, and the ugly. This was the first question in even considering proposing this project: how to convince people to honestly represent themselves.
The core of my proposal abruptly changed after a crucial talk with Alma Teresa, another key community member we had the pleasure of speaking with during our field research. “Ni nos conocemos los vecinos” (“We don’t even know our neighbors”), Alma Teresa had said while explaining her involvement with civic duty and the personal lives of Camino Verde’s citizens1. I realized, at that moment, that there needed to be more work within the community as a whole before my previous proposal could be initiated. The first step I needed to take was to figure out how to get people to sit down and talk with one another. This became the praxis of my research and eventual experimentation.
Reflecting on where I saw most people begin conversations with others they had little to no knowledge of in brought back images of the market that was set-up on both sides of the Boulevard Baja California during the weekend mornings. I saw people selling food and second hand goods. People would sit around makeshift and folding tables creating a sense of a patio where they were served posole, tacos, and even pizzas. I got my inspiration around this communal experience of sitting around a table with others one may or may not know that creates short moments of interactions.
Getting to Know Your Neighbor: Experiment #1 ponders the idea of how you get people to sit down and talk to one another. Camino Verde built many of its recent infrastructures with the backing of the “community,” but as this concept was talked about and further explored beyond the surface, implied or assumed connections presumably binding the neighborhood, fell apart. Alma Teresa’s discussion was a blatant example of this. As so, Getting to Know Your Neighbor became a reflection and exploration of dialogue as a foundational gesture to allow people to exchange ideas, common notions, elements involved in creating community, and getting to know one another.
The repurposed round kitchen table I installed would have been just an installation with abstract visual cues without a component of performance. The insertsetion of myself as a dynamic role of beginning conversations would lead to the idea behind the allegory the table was meant to represent. During the opening of our “Exposición Ni Chana Tijuana” it became important to sit at the table at intervals and begin conversations surrounding the idea of community, how community it is built, and if participants felt part of a community. I installed mini notebooks for conversationalist to write notes about community. The hope is that these notes would yield an archive of visitors’ memory that can eventually be explored further in future projects.
The use of dialogue in creating moments of connection as art is not a new concept. Yet it is a flexible medium and can be used as a way to begin interactions for collaborative work. My connection to Tijuana has only begun. With the help of constructive criticism, I hope to refine this table and eventually take it back to Camino Verde. With the help of friendships I have built, I would like to take the table back to Camino Verde to continue to host conversations. These hosted conversations would be site specific and surround interpretations of "community" and question how people get to know their neighbors before thinking about a larger community involved project.
1. Alma Teresa, Local Camino Verde Community Leader.
