Full disclosure : I am a resident of Corona, Queens and partially grew up in this neighborhood. So perhaps my critique, concern, and commentary comes from a personal place. I also acknowledge that I am not an immigrant. My parents came to the U.S. from Puerto Rico so their immigrant experience is different than that of the immigrants that live in Corona, Queens. I own that as well.

I was supposed to participate in a poetry event today at Immigrant Movement International, just a few blocks from where I live.
I wondered what was this organization that I was being invited to share space with? I have lived at my current address in Corona for a number of years and had never seen or heard of it. Also many years of being involved in the Latino social justice movement here in NYC had me thinking I was pretty aware of the different organizations doing work.

Turns out Immigrant Movement International isn’t so much of a movement but rather the art project of one Cubana, Tania Bruguera.

From her website on the project :

Tania Bruguera’s Immigrant Movement International, presented by Creative Time and the Queens Museum of Art, is a long-term art project in the form of an artist-initiated socio-political movement. Bruguera will spend a year operating a flexible community space in the multinational and transnational neighborhood of Corona, Queens, which will serve as the movement’s headquarters. Engaging both local and international communities, as well as working with social service organizations, elected officials, and artists focused on immigration reform, Bruguera will examine growing concerns about the political representation and conditions facing immigrants.

As one of those artists, I decided not to engage Immigrant Movement International, in fact this blog post will be the extent of my engagement save when I pass the building when I am walking with my children to the park. I have to worry about the mobile police unit on my corner, how to pay for my own unfunded art space/home, and if a crime against a Latino family friend 20 years ago- an immigrant on immigrant crime if you will- well ever see justice.

Just as adventure tourism that claims to give a “border crossing experience” is problematic, so is an art project that claims to be movement.

By engaging the local community through public workshops, events, actions, and partnerships with immigrant and social service organizations, Immigrant Movement International will explore who is defined as an immigrant and the values they share, focusing on the larger question of what it means to be a citizen of the world. Bruguera will also delve into the implementation of art in society, examining what it means to create “Useful Art”, and addressing the disparity of engagement between informed audiences and the general public, as well as the historical gap between the language used in what is considered avant-garde and the language of urgent politics.

Since when is a funded art project coming into a neighborhood a movement?
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