“Simultaneously present and absent, the shadow interacts with a binational audience that bears witness to the reenactment of the jaguars’ freedom. Given that several scientists have argued that the planet will lose the majority of all species by the end of this century, it is not difficult to imagine a future scenario in which the audience is bearing witness not to the reenactment of the jaguars’ freedom, but to the reenactment of their very existence. As Tsing puts it: ‘Ghost remind us that we live in an impossible present -a time of rupture, a world haunted with the threat of extinction.’”
The northern jaguar travels from a breeding population in northeastern Sonora, defying the U.S.-Mexico border wall to re-establish territory in the American Southwest. The journey, however, is an imperiled one; the jaguar’s historic travel corridor is fragmented by human activity, border wall expansion, and anti-predator policies. Un-Fragmenting / Des-Fragmentando is an interdisciplinary intervention that transforms the U.S.-Mexico border wall from barrier to backdrop, projecting jaguar and other borderland wildlife images from the Northern Jaguar Reserve and neighboring Viviendo con Felinos ranches directly on the rusted iron construct. Through binational cultural engagement, community education, and digital projection, Strohacker and collaborators confront the multifaceted ecological effects of the border wall and envision removing barriers to ensure the survival of a wide diversity of species, including the iconic jaguar.
Un-Fragmenting / Des-Fragmentando is a temporary public project made in collaboration with the Northern Jaguar Project (Tucson, AZ) and co-produced with Border Arts Corridor (Douglas, AZ), and supported by Casa de la Cultura (Agua Prieta, SON), Conciencia y Educación Ambiental (Hermosillo, SON), U.S. Border Patrol, the city of Douglas and the city of Agua Prieta.
Un-Fragmenting / Des-Fragmentando in USA TODAY's The Wall, an in-depth examination of Donald Trump's border wall. Featured in Roars and Silence: Creatures, and the wall that could silence them by Brandon Loomis. Photos by Mark Henle.
Un-Fragmenting / Des-Fragmentando in the New York Times series Borderlands. Featured in A Border Fence Blurred Through Art, by Erica Bernstein and Fernanda Santos. Click for video.
To many politicians, Americans and desperate migrants, the borderlands of the United States and Mexico are a land divided. But to the people who live there, the edges of these two countries are a binational Venn diagram where language, culture, family and business overlap.
127. The Jaguar
the ghost of a jaguar walks through the fence
the jaguar is our freedom
a friend gave me a precious thing
a little fragment of the Berlin wall
but this wall they are building
straight across my heartland
with our flag draped across it
is the coffin of my country
hands reach through the gaps
to clasp, until the gaps are sealed
and even music
cannot get through
but only the ghosts
of all we have betrayed
this is the wall of lamentation
the grave of the jaguar
— UKL
17 July 2017