Diego Gutiérrez Coppe

Mexico City artist Diego Gutiérrez conceived of a project for inSITE2000 that was to involve one hundred unsuspecting households on both sides of the border. Titled Dos barrios, uno en México y otro en EU, un recién llegado y sus amigos (mayo – septiembre de 2000)/Two neighborhoods, one in Mexico and one in the United States, a newcomer and his friends (May–September 2000), Gutiérrez conducted six residencies in the San Diego-Tijuana region, five of these with a different friend who would participate in the creation of an ongoing narrative of journeys, stories, and relationships. During each residency the artist and his visiting friend would elaborate on this narrative producing a video and assembling other materials that resonated with their joint investigations. Gutiérrez chose one hundred households on either side of the border to anonymously receive a package containing these materials, including the videos, following each residency. In the first video the artist presented himself and explained the project, yet several reports to television stations were made in Tijuana, where residents who had received the packages expressed concern about the suspicious nature of what they received and their delivery. The five invited collaborators were Héctor Velázquez, Kees Hin, Maria Thereza Alves, Jen Budney, and Joris Brouwers.

Another component of the project was two novels by Jeannine Diego, Las Zebras de Tijuana and The Rainbow Chronicles, which picked up on and paralleled the themes of the videos. Chapters of each novel would appear weekly in local newspapers, one in San Diego and one in Tijuana.

Curators: Susan Buck-Morss, Ivo Mesquita, Osvaldo Sánchez, and Sally Yard
Venues: Colonia Guerrero, Tijuana, and Castle Park, Chula Vista

Acknowledgments