NI AQUÍ, NI ALLÁ
[ Neither Here, Nor There ]
Multimedia installation: Multichannel video, multichannel audio, rope, luggage, trunks, furniture.
16 minutes
25 x 25 x 17 feet / 762 x 762 x 518 cm
2018
Ni Aqui Ni Alla explores the intersection of migration, materiality, and perception through a haunting, multichannel video installation. The installation features three-dimensional trunks and furniture that are bound together with rope and dragged by human figures, who are projected in black-and-white on the surrounding walls. This creates a striking contrast between the tangible objects and the ephemeral, ghostlike figures that interact with them.
The imagery in the installation evokes a sense of endlessness and futility, emphasizing the unrelenting nature of the migrant experience. The migrants in the installation are engaged in a Sisyphean task of hauling their possessions through a never-ending cycle of illustrated cities and forest environments. While the trunks and furniture are tangible objects, they also represent the intangible aspects of migration: memories, culture, and identity. As viewers contemplate the plight of these migrants, they are forced to confront their own assumptions about the relationship between people and the things they carry with them.
The use of video projection in the installation also highlights the complex relationship between materiality and perception. The projected human figures are ethereal and ghostly, and they appear to be "tricks of light." Meanwhile, the physical objects in the installation are solid and real, emphasizing the contrast between the world of the migrant and the world of the viewer. Through this tension between the tangible and the intangible, the installation invites viewers to question their assumptions about the nature of reality and the role of perception in shaping our understanding of the world around us.
The hybrid of dimensions, styles, and palettes in the installation creates a sense of discordance and dialectic. The imagery is intentionally jarring, emphasizing the contrast between different elements and exacerbating the exhaustion and disorientation of the migrant experience. The result is a powerful meditation on the challenges of migration and the complex relationship between materiality, perception, and identity in our contemporary world.
EXHIBITIONS
FLORIDA PRIZE IN CONTEMPORARY ART
Curated by Coralie Claeysen-Gleyzon and Hansen Mulford
Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL
May 31 - August 18, 2019
Peñafiel’s installations are most often framed in paradoxical and absurd representations of specific events. Composing with video, drawing, sculpture, and animation, he transforms serious social incidents into compelling poetic allegories. Conscious of the innumerable perspectives with which we interpret the world, Peñafiel’s large projections blend with actual environments, extending his uncanny videos and animated scenes into our reality.
In Ni Aquí, Ni Allá, his characters walk aimlessly towards the horizon on an endless trek. It’s a continuous circle they are caught in, much like migrants trying to enter a country over and over again, caught in the destabilizing perpetual loop of migration. The road takes them through wheat fields, cities, forests, and a beach. All these backgrounds and surrounding environments are animated charcoal drawings in a rough, raw style inspired in part by Anselm Kiefer’s work, and by German Expressionism, using highly symbolic elements and a stark black and white contrast. Although the scenery changes, the people are going nowhere, and they have nowhere to go. “These are people nobody cares about” he says. “I conceived the work while in Germany when immigrants from the Middle East were trying to reach Germany and other countries in Northern Europe. I address these social issues with sarcasm, as a way to make people pay attention.”
Ni Aquí, Ni Allá appeared at the Florida Prize in Contemporary Art 2019 exhibition at the Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL, and received the Florida Prize in Contemporary Art 2019 Award.
Photo: Orlando Museum of Art
NI AQUÍ, NI ALLÁ
Elsewhere Museum, Greensboro, NC
February 5, 2018 - Ongoing
Ni Aquí, Ni Allá (Neither Here, Nor There), on Elsewhere’s 3rd floor, is a fantastical parade of irrational imagery in a destabilizing perpetual loop. The projection displays an animated, intermittently changing landscape with people walking endlessly towards a horizon and away from the viewer. Each individual pulls a rope attached to physical bundles of crates, luggage, and other bound piles of symbolic personal belongings placed throughout the installation. The immateriality of virtual projections to physical objects that embody intrinsic meaning and soundscape responding to cyclical themes all interact together to reach a physical metamorphosis for the audience.
Aware of personal and collective experiences as a migrant, Peñafiel is interested in political art. He examines displacement from multiple perspectives and its association with fear, injustice, subjugation, perpetuity, relief, and liberty. Ni Aquí, Ni Allá is designed to evoke thoughts of empathy about the uncertainty of such migratory journeys, and the experiences of physical and psychological torture.
The multimedia installation was created during an Elsewhere Museum artist residency focusing on the creation of site-specific responsive art. Ni Aquí, Ni Allá was created in collaboration with first and second generation undocumented immigrant actors in Greensboro, NC.
Featured Performers: Riley Kleve, Rimona Law, Adrian Quarles, Guido Villalba Portel
Music Composed, Performed, Recorded & Mixed by Ellis Anderson
Community Partner: Scrapmettle Theatre
To learn more about the work and see the permanent installation at Elsewhere Museum visit: goelsewhere.org