{"id":1542,"date":"2024-09-18T12:51:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T12:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imaginedtheatres.com\/?post_type=theatre&p=1542"},"modified":"2025-03-28T14:53:37","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T14:53:37","slug":"interference-and-performance-art-at-the-mexicali-calexico-border","status":"publish","type":"theatre","link":"https:\/\/www.imaginedtheatres.com\/interference-and-performance-art-at-the-mexicali-calexico-border\/","title":{"rendered":"Interference and Performance Art at the Mexicali-Calexico Border"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On October 15, 2023, Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) 3.0 and Annabel Turrado performed simultaneously on the border between Mexicali and Calexico during the 2022\/23 <\/span>MexiCali Biennial <\/span>Land of Milk & Honey<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/a> I was one of the Biennial curators, and these recollections are gathered from my notes, recordings, and impressions that day.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scene 1 <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wearing red \u201cMAKE AMERICA GREATER MEXICO AGAIN\u201d hats and orange hazmat suits, EDT 3.0 performed scene three of \u201cThree Echologies: An \u00c1\/Area\/Aria X Play.\u201d Half of the collective was positioned on the Calexico side of the border, the other half in Mexicali, a configuration that resembled past Mexicali Biennial performances such as <\/span>Mike Rogers\u2019 <\/span>Telephone <\/span><\/i>(2006)<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Homeless Collective\u2019s <\/span>Transborder Game<\/span><\/i> (2010)<\/span><\/a>. Their \u201cpalindrone\u201d searched out, signaled, and shared the play with Homeland Security through an \u201cecholocating\u201d sound gesture that summoned subaltern knowledge of past, present, and future farmworkers, migrant laborers, and Zapatistas in an area reconfigured as X.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Down the street, Annabel Turrado\u2019s durational performance <\/span>Raspado: Abolish ICE <\/span><\/i>took place simultaneously. For around four hours, the artist scraped away at a large, rectangular block of ice using a <\/span>raspadero<\/span><\/i>,<\/span> a tool commonly used to make Mexican shaved ice. ICE refers both to the material used in the performance and to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency that enforces laws governing border control and immigration, and trade and has been a key force in the increasingly violent surveillance, detention, and deportation of undocumented migrants.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biennial performances interfered with the everyday commerce and culture of Mexicali\u2019s border zone \u2013 and vice versa. The acts of the performers, the labor of the singer and vendor, and the participation of the public combined in a grand gesture of frequency changes, frictions, and feedback. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lone singer belts out ballads about heartbreak, boombox strapped to his body. He\u2019s on the border in Mexicali, working Crist\u00f3bal Col\u00f3n at Parque H\u00e9roes de Chapultepec. ","protected":false},"menu_order":0,"template":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginedtheatres.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/theatres\/1542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginedtheatres.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/theatres"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginedtheatres.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/theatre"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginedtheatres.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}