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Title
MAMA: border patrol agents
Creator
Dias, Mauricio (Brazilian installation artist, born 1964)
Riedweg, Walter (Swiss installation and video artist, born 1955)
Golino, Michael (American)
Contributor
InSITE2000
Date Created and/or Issued
2000
Contributing Institution
UC San Diego, Special Collections and Archives
Collection
inSite Archive: Selections
Rights Information
Unknown
Constraint(s) on Use: This work may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). Use of this work beyond that allowed by "fair use" requires the written permission of the copyright holders(s). Responsibility for obtaining permissions and any use and distribution of this work rests exclusively with the user and not the UC San Diego Libraries. Inquiries can be made to the UC San Diego Libraries department having custody of the work.
Use: This work is available from the UC San Diego Library. This digital copy of the work is intended to support research, teaching, and private study.
Description
Performing Arts (including Performance Art)
Film, Audio, Video and Digital Art
Sculpture and Installations
Brazilian and Swiss artist team Mauricio Dias and Walter Riedweg's inSITE2000 project, "MAMA," was based on work the artists undertook during several extended residencies in the region. Interested in investigating the issues of border security and immigration, the artists met with numerous groups, organizations, and individuals on either side of the border to collect materials. Through this process the artists narrowed their work to deal specifically with K-9 US customs officers on the one hand, and on the other, Mexican citizens trying to cross the border illegally. What interested Dias and Riedweg were the maternal relationships of the K-9 officers and how that informed the relationships they developed with their dogs and in turn the work they were performing daily. The work became an investigation of the border between private and public selves, and of the transgression and transference of private psychology on public situations. The project was shown as a video installation housed in two separate structures located in the San Ysidro pedestrian passage, Pasillo Turistico. Built to simulate the shape and size of ordinary cargo containers, one structure contained video of interviews with the customs officers and showed them interacting with their dogs. Each officer was asked to give his definition of "territory" and "authority." The other structure showed a looped video clip of illegal immigrants meeting up at night around a fire waiting for the "right" moment to jump the fence. --inSITE2000
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego, La Jolla, 92093-0175 (https://lib.ucsd.edu/sca)
This image is a scan of a 35mm color slide from the InSite Archive (MSS 707, Box 309, Folder 03, Item 094)
[Title, Date]. InSite Archive. MSS 707. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.
San Ysidro, San Diego, California, United States
Type
image
Format
Two-part video installation
Form/Genre
installations (visual works)
Identifier
ark:/20775/bb0207759k
Language
No linguistic content
Subject
Border patrol agents
Military Uniforms
Mothers
Video art
Border art
Sons
Graphic arts
Dogs
Boundaries
Political art
Installations (visual works)
Mexican-American border region
InSITE2000
Place
Mexican-American border region

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