THE OTHER PROJECT

 

A refugee tent, originally designed to provide temporary shelter at emergency sites in Afghanistan,  was built on a hill in an undeveloped plot of land in Valencia, California.  For five days, the tent and its surroundings served as the site for The Other Project, a series of conversations, forums, performances, workshops and readings investigating our complex understanding of "The Other."

 

Evelyn Serrano moved into the tent for the duration of the project, and furnished it with items from her home such as Ikea chairs, Kmart lamps, and her grandmother’s crystal vase. “During these times, when our country and its institutions are committed to a re-evaluation of "the other" through military campaigns, the building of walls along the Mexican border, landmark Supreme Court rulings and the re-imagining of immigration policy, The Other Project looks at these same issues from the perspective of a refugee tent on a suburban hill 25 miles from Los Angeles.”

 

The program included a town hall meeting bringing together members of the Santa Clarita Arts Advisory Board, city officials and the CalArts community, as well as various original performance art projects, meetings with journalists, curators and community residents, etc. Throughout the five-day event, visual artists, writers, anthropologists, musicians, performers, community leaders, activists, curators and educators from Mexico and the United States used the site to present work and engage in cross-disciplinary, intersectional dialogue. 

 

 

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