EXHIBITION HOURS: 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday, Monday, Thursday and Fridays thru December 15, 2020.
“Borded Carnosos | Border Carnage MoLCA” is an evolving, traveling exhibition by Kansas City-based artist Israel Alejandro Garcia Garcia on display in Budd Park (near the northwest corner of St. John Ave. and Brighton Ave.) in the Indian Mound neighborhood of the Historic Northeast. The exhibit is open to the public from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays through November 20, 2020.
Housed in a 40’ shipping container, “Borded Carnosos | Border Carnage MoLCA” documents the immigrant experience, focusing on how Latinx peoples secure and maintain their cultural identities in a hostile environment rooted in systemic racism and segregation. The exhibit includes two types of work: the first is a selection of photographs, audio, and video from Israel’s body of work over the last 20 years; and the second is a curated assemblage of ephemeral objects left along the United States/Mexico border by migrants. Israel retrieved these objects during a 2000-mile border fence research and development journey in fall 2018. “Borded Carnosos | Border Carnage” is supported by the Charlotte Street Foundation and the Mid-America Arts Alliance.
The mobile exhibit has been designed to travel to several parks throughout Kansas City, Missouri, allowing Israel the opportunity to share the histories of Kansas City’s Latinx neighborhoods—which have inevitable, painful ties to the borderlands of today—and to document the daily struggle of fighting against gentrification and maintaining culture heritage. Virtual public programming will be developed in collaboration with the Kansas City Museum with partial funding from the Trust for Public Land through a creative placemaking grant awarded to the Kansas City Museum Foundation.
Israel Alejandro Garcia Garcia is an artist, curator, and visual storyteller. His work is layered with personal experiences and unanswered questions that attempt to understand the process as a reflection of self. His studio practice is a manifestation of internal emotion, stored memories, pertinent socio-political issues, and raw passion for creation. His body of work narrates his autobiography through visual translation, telling the stories of his ancestors, elders, peers, and community.
Support for this work is provided by:
Garcia Squared Contemporary, MoLCA (Movimiento Latinx Contemporaneo de las Artes), the Charlotte Street Foundation and the University of Kansas Spencer Museum of Art, the Mid-America Arts Alliance and ArtsKC.
Funding was also provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Mary C. Maker Family Fund, the Mike + Carol Pittman Family Fund, and the Kansas City Museum Foundation.