Digital Photography on Fine Art Matt Paper, Selection & Ongoing~ 2016 t0 2023
"We have not received an explanation of the rules here."
Siblings 16 and 14 and cousin 16, Ecuador, June 19, 2019
This text is extracted from the Flores accounts of children incarcerated at the US Mexico border. Pages 1,2,3,4,5.
DYKWTCA
DO YOU KNOW WHERE THE CHILDREN ARE?
A CALL TO ACTION BY 100+ LEADING VISUAL ARTISTS IN THE WORLD UTILIZING THE FLORES
ACCOUNTS IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE DETAINED AND SEPARATED CHILDREN AT THE U.S.—MEXICO BORDER
DYKWTCA is a call to action and exhibition of 100+ unique works of art by 100+ leading visual artists that is organized by the artists and activists Mary Ellen Carroll and Lucas Michael. Each work incorporates, or represents an actual account (in whole or in part) from a child who was separated from their family and detained by the US government. This text may be in the native language of the child or a translation into English. The accounts are taken from the interviews that were conducted by the Flores investigators that included legal, medical and mental health experts who visited the detention facilities six months ago in June of 2019. Upon witnessing the deplorable, inhumane, and illegal conditions they found the children in, they decided it was necessary to act upon their findings. They went public.
The works of art will initially be exhibited at the new, non-collecting cultural institution designed by Selldorf Architects, The Corner at Whitman-Walker in Washington, D.C. Ruth Noack, the new executive director of The Corner will curate these works in the exhibition, We First Arrived… that will open on Saturday, January 25, 2020 and run until Saturday, March 28, 2020. The works of art will benefit organizations and the process will be announced shortly through DYKWTCA.com. The artists were invited to produce works with the Flores accounts that were made available through the public awareness initiative—Project Amplify.
There are nearly 7,000 unaccompanied children (UACs) that are seeking asylum in the United States, and are being detained by the U.S. federal government right now. Under the Migration Protection Protocol (MPP), colloquially referred to as the Remain in Mexico program, that figure in Mexico is over 15,000 unaccompanied kids.* As per the 1997 Flores Settlement, children shall not be detained for longer than 72 hours by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and 20 days by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). There is also a minimum of care for drinking water, hygiene articles, hot meals, showers, clothing, medical care, bedding, clean linens, temperature, activities, and consular and telephone access in their native language.
Private Collection of Doreen Remen.
Related Materials
Press
23 January 2020—E-Flux
|https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/312470/when-we-first-arrived/
17 January 2020—The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jan/17/child-separation-artists-washington-whitman-walker
15 January 2020—Hyperallergic
https://hyperallergic.com|536746/do-you-know-where-the-children-are|
Websites:
https://dykwtca.com/
https://www.whitman-walker.org/events/art-when-we-first-arrived
Reno vs. Flores
Project Amplify
History of Exhibition
The Corner at Whitman-Walker in D.C., Sunday, January 26, 2020 to Sunday, March 29, 2020, curated by Ruth Noack
January 2020 Filed under Flores Accounts Mary Ellen Carrol Lucas Michael Ruth Noack The Corner at Whitman-Walker in D.C. Project Amplify