SANCTUARY CITY Project — BANNERS

September 11–DECEMBER 10, 2020

 
scp-banners1.jpg

SANCTUARY CITY PROJECT (SCP) is an engagement platform created by artists SERGIO DE LA TORRE and CHRIS TREGGIARI to collect and share research with the public. Their latest project investigates the state of undocumented immigrants since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time as being classified as “essential workers” for their work in high-risk jobs in meatpacking plants, agriculture, and construction, undocumented immigrants have received little to no support from the federal government — including no direct monetary payments, which most US residents received from the stimulus packages passed by Congress. Instead, the federal government has taken advantage of this time to expand construction of the border wall and engage in further deportation and immigration restrictions. The COVID-19 pandemic has been used to increase fear, mistrust, and instability in the undocumented immigrant community. 

Sanctuary City Project realizes that during COVID-19, public space has also become essential. Outdoor spaces provide the opportunity to engage more safely and responsibly, and offer a sense of normality in a very un-normal time. These banners are a way for SCP to expand the engagement strategies they have been developing for the past 12 years, and to encourage public conversations about the injustices surrounding undocumented immigrants and COVID-19.



SERGIO DE LA TORRE & CHRIS TREGGIARI / SANCTUARY CITY PROJECT IN CONVERSATION WITH PATRICIA CARIÑO VALDEZ Co-presented by Berkeley Art Center and Galería de la Raza. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2 PM PDT VIA ZOOM ABOUT SANCTUARY CITY PROJECT For the past 12 years, artists SERGIO DE LA TORRE and CHRIS TREGGIARI have utilized primary and secondary research methods to inform engagement platforms that encourage public conversations concerning sanctuary cities and immigration. Projects have included interactive installations, public projections, mobile food projects, and mobile print-making shops. The aim has been to create inclusive spaces where deeper dialogue can take place between individuals and institutions. ABOUT THE MODERATOR PATRICIA CARIÑO VALDEZ is an independent curator and art consultant based in California. Her research interests include the history of art and exhibitions, artists in the Philippine Diaspora, her Ibaloi family history and archives, and public art practices and interventions. In 2019–2020, she curated the Oakland Museum’s 50th anniversary program series Community Conversations, which included the daylong symposium Exploring Public Art Practices. Her curatorial and public program projects have taken place at numerous museums, galleries, and art spaces in the Bay Area — including the Contemporary Jewish Museum, BAMPFA, and the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art — as well as the Asia Society Texas (Houston). She previously served as curator and director of public programs at San Jose ICA and created public programs at the intersection of art and science at the Exploratorium. In this conversation Sanctuary City Project spoke about their latest research, the impact of COVID-19 on their public engagement art practice, and their current banner projects on view outside the Berkeley Art Center and at the corner of Mission and 18th streets in San Francisco.

About the Artists

SERGIO DE LA TORRE has worked with and documented the multiple ways in which citizens reinvent themselves in the city they inhabit as well as site-specific strategies they deploy to move in and out of modernity. These works have appeared at the 10th Istanbul Biennial, Bienal Barro de America; Cleveland Performance Art Festival, Atelier Frankfurt, Centro Cultural Tijuana, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SFMOMA, Tribeca Film Festival, and El Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia. He is an Associate Professor at the University of San Francisco Art and Architecture Department.

CHRIS TREGGIARI’s artistic practice investigates how art can enter the public realm in a way that can connect wide ranges of people and neighborhoods in a variety of communities. Chris has shown nationally and internationally at the Venice Biennale 2012 American Pavilion, SFMOMA, Torrance Art Museum, The Getty Museum, Berkeley Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Jose Museum of Art, Oakland Museum of California, and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. He has received grants from the Puffin Foundation, the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Creative Work Fund, the Arts Commission of San Jose, the Seattle Center Foundation, the Oakland Arts Commission, US Bank, and the Zellerbach Foundation. Chris has been a teaching artist-in-residence at the Center for Art & Public Life at California College of the Arts since 2013.

Banners+on+the+Bridge-Photo+by+MZ_10.jpg
Banners on the Bridge-Photo by MZ_58.jpg
Banners+on+the+Bridge-Photo+by+MZ_13.jpg
 
 

Photos by Minoosh Zomorodinia