Mônica Nador

Brazilian artist Mônica Nador began her project for inSITE2000 with a two-month residency in the community of Maclovio Rojas in Tijuana. Challenging traditional notions of the role of the artist and audience, Nador worked with ten families in the community to implement a collaborative form of decoration for the exterior of their homes. Encouraging each family to identify ancestral signs, symbols, and other imagery associated with their regional and cultural heritage, Nador and a small team of assistant artists began a process of creating stencils to be used in decorating the houses. Working in the community for approximately six months, the artist’s motivation that “ beauty is good for mental and spiritual health” resulted in brightly painted and decorated houses that residents in the entire community saw as unifying and adding visual wealth that could be shared by all. A video documenting Acción en Maclovio Rojas/Project at Maclovio Rojas was produced as part of the project.

Curators: Susan Buck-Morss, Ivo Mesquita, Osvaldo Sánchez, and Sally Yard
Venue: Maclovio Rojas, Tijuana

Acknowledgments