Buena Vista Archive

Land Arts has a continuing relationship with the Barrio Buena Vista Community that spans over 5 years. Each year Land Arts students engage and collaborate with the community to develop a project. In the past, projects have responded to the needs and interests of community members. This year, students worked to create a way of highlighting and preserving a community resource - the unique history of Barrio Buena Vista.

A show plan was outlined and within less than 48 hours students collaborated on a showcase of materials gathered from the community to display at Centro Artistico y Cultural gallery, which is located in the neighborhood. Through an intense ideation session, proposals ranging from public art installations, tree plantings, to other infrastructural creations were all considered. From this conversation, the concept of creating an archive or collection arose from the many possibilities. 

This concept of an archive, would be activated through a public engagement where neighborhood members could bring their photographs and memorabilia to the gallery for display. This event would provide an opportunity for items to be photographed and catalogued both digitally and in print media on site. This initial event would “start” the archive, additional materials could then accumulate over time under the supervision of a local resident.

In addition to the photo archive, other forms of creative re-representation were also initiated.

A photo booth was set-up to document current residents as well as participants of the event. Also, a wall of possible future projects (created during the ideation process) were posted on a wall where residents could comment and contribute their ideas for projects that they would like to see happen in their neighborhood.

A room was designated for the collection of words - a space that asked visitors to write one word on an index card, which would describe the most important thing in their life. These words would later be added to a file in the archive.

Andre Liptay processing images

Images that were photographed or scanned were processed and printed on site. The prints would then be hung on the walls of the main gallery.

Over the four hours of the event, the walls of the gallery began to fill with images and information. Many community members reviewed the collected images and provided accounts of the people and places they represented. The atmosphere became a living environment of past, present, and future manifestations of a place called Buena Vista.

Land Arts students Randal Romwalter, Margaret Shuster, and Chitra Sangtani looking over photographs a local resident contributed.

This video presents materials contributed by the Buena Vista Community for the Buena Vista Archive as these photocopies of objects, images, and photographs were displayed on the walls of the Centro Artistico y Cultural and subsequently archived by Land Arts in the filing cabinet at the close of the event.

BUENA VISTA ARCHIVE: A filing cabinet designed to hold the evolving archive of Buena Vista and the Centro Artistico y Cultural.

The Buena Vista Archive was a collaborative project created by Land Arts of the American West students in partnership with the Centro Artistico y Cultural and the Buena Vista Community

Buena Vista Community Art Event

BUENA VISTA COMMUNITY ART EVENT:
Presenting the Photo Collection of Buena Vista
Saturday, October 19th
1pm to 5pm
Centro Artistico y Cultural
120 Courchesne, Buena Vista, El Paso, TX

The Buena Vista Archive is designed to document and preserve community history and identity. It is our hope that this project will function as an evolving process, created by those who participate now and in the future.

Buena Vista is a predominantly Mexican-American community located on the New Mexico/Texas/Chihuahua border that was a spillover from Smeltertown, Texas. It has been cut three times: once by Paisano, once by the freeway (I-10), and once by a retaining dam, leaving 1/3 to 1/2 of the original population and land area intact. Armando Carlos, Roberto Salas, and the Land Arts of the American West Program have been working together over the last five years to preserve and strengthen the community of Buena Vista through various political and artistic means.

All documents created for, generated, and displayed during this event will be added to the Buena Vista Archive at the end of the exhibition. The Buena Vista Archive will continue to evolve and grow over time, with the help and support of those who contribute. If you would like to add to this collection, please contact Roberto Salas at (619)886-1892.

Map of Gallery

1. BUENA VISTA ARCHIVE: A filing cabinet designed to hold the evolving archive of Buena Vista and the Centro Artistico y Cultural. Feel free to have a look inside, and add ideas, pictures, or thoughts.

2. BUENA VISTA PHOTO COLLECTION: Includes new and old photographs gathered throughout the neighborhood, as well as portraits of attendees at the event.

3. BUENA VISTA PROJECT IDEAS: Presentation of future ideas in the Buena Vista Neighborhood. What would you like to see? Add your ideas.

4. A WORD: What would be the one word that would be the most important to your life? A collection of words; a collection of person- al values; a collection and portrait of Buena Vista.

5. PHOTOBOOTH: Be part of the archive. Have a photo taken with the backdrop of the United States and Mexico. Additionally, personal objects can be archived after having been photographed.

6: ARCHIVE PROCESSING STATION: Location of performative processing and archiving of the content created for and generated during the event.

Organized by:
Armando Carlos
Lara Goldmann
Emily Gonzales
Jeanette Hart-Mann
Ryan Henel
André Liptay
Randal Romwalter
Roberto Salas
Chitra Sangtani
Carina Schnieders
Elizabeth Shores
Margaret Shuster

This project would was made possible with help and support from many individuals.
A special thanks to:

Land Arts of the American West, The University of New Mexico
Roberto Salas, Director, Centro Artistico y Cultural
Armando Carlos, President, The Buena Vista Neighborhood Association
Mrs. Cordero
Luis S. Jimenez
Gilbert Sanchez
The community of Buena Vista

Border Watershed

Buena Vista looking out across the Rio Grande to the border on Mount Cristo Rey.

Land Arts of the American West spent a week investigating the Rio Grande Watershed at the US/Mexico Border, El Paso, TX and collaborating on a social engagement project with the community of Buena Vista and the Centro Artistico y Cultural in El Paso, TX.

On our first day, we met up with the Center for Environmental Resource Management (CERM) at the University of Texas, El Paso for a brief introduction to water issues in this stretch of the Rio Grande. Bill Hargrove, Director of CERM, along with UTEP Biology Professor, Venessa Lougheed, presented several projects they are working on assessing surface and groundwater relationships as these are affected by biophysical, political, and social systems.

View from Rim Road Overlook across El Paso/Juarez and the channelized Rio Grande.

They discussed the channelization of the Rio Grande via the Chamizal Treaty that created the concrete-lined national boundary between the US and Mexico, controlling river flow as a physical mark of delineation. They pointed out inevitable problems ranging from loss of biodiversity, resiliency, and groundwater recharge to non-equitable inputs and outputs within the hydro-political system.

The US Department of the Interior has assessed the Rio Grande as having the highest  potential rate of conflict and crisis of any US river system. The question remains, is this still a river and/or what characterizes a riparian system when a river is without water.  This seems to be the biggest issue: inadequate water resources to serve all users, both human and not. Threats include salinization of surface and ground water, increased water demands, water quality impacts from agriculture, municipal, and industry, changing climate, and conflicting water management policies between bi-national orders.

Behind the fence. Rio Bravo (Rio Grande) trickle into Mexico from the American Dam.

American Dam diversion point where the Rio Grande is regulated between Texas and Mexico users.

American Channel, Rio Grande diversion to serve Texas water rights in the East Valley of El Paso.

John Sproul with Land Arts students.

John Sproul, manager of CERM Rio Bosque Wetland took Land Arts students on a tour of urban river infrastructure and discussed the wetland project east of El Paso.

The Rio Bosque Wetland Project serves as an experimental model for riparian and water quality research. It is the hope of CERM that through this experiment, science and policy can be integrated to create viable solutions that are replicable in the management of other desert rivers around the world.

Rio Bosque Wetlands river channel.

The historic Rio Grande channel was re-established as the central river meander through the Rio Bosque Wetlands, distributing water resources to the 372 acre complex. Over the last decade, drought conditions, water shortages, and increased temperature extremes have marginalized this riparian experiment to a small percentage of its actual land area, killing many of the transplanted Alamos and stressing other species. Mesquite, wolfberry, fourwing saltbush and a host of other native and invasive plants are slowly terraforming this habitat and creating a realistic portrait of the drier and hotter world to come.

Windmill and well at Rio Bosque Wetlands.

The recent addition of a well to the Rio Bosque Wetlands is now bringing supplemental water to a small section of this environment.  Plans are also in the works to pipe water from the local wastewater treatment plant and supply the wetlands with a permanent water source. The wetlands will then act as a water repository for downstream users while improving water quality through bioremediation.

At the Bridge to Nowhere in Buena Vista.

On the following day a tour of the local watershed took us back to basecamp and our host site of Buena Vista. Roberto Salas, Director of Centro Artistico y Cultural and Armando Carlos, President of Buena Vista Neighborhood Association led a walking tour of the area and discussed the fragmentation of this community through policies of eminent domain and political marginalization.  Cemex then drove us to visit the local accidental wetlands within Buena Vista, called Cement Lake, which has a been an oasis of lush riparian habitat and community reprieve from the concrete jungle of urbanization.

Land Arts students with MSHEA gear checking out Cement Lake.

Cement Lake interactive map at Centro Artistico y Cultural with community proposals for recreational open space at a nearby and thriving wetland.

Land Arts students then visited the Centro, where they would be organizing a collaborative experimental public engagement to be held on Oct 19th. With one and a half days to dialogue, organize, and produce the project, Land Arts students jumped in with feet on the ground running.

See upcoming posts for more on this extraordinary event.

Land Arts students making space by cleaning up the Centro and its landscape.

Near Buena Vista, Monument #1 marks the US/Mexico Border and the border of water allocation.

Buena Vista, (El Paso) TX, October 17th, 2013

Marz Shuster

            We visited the border site called Monument 1, which is between the United States and Mexico. It was so strange to step on each both sides of the border, but not be able to cross to the Mexican side due to our absent passports and the high international tension. Even though the land looks exactly the same on both sides, there is such a huge difference between the two countries. I could sense the tension between the United States and Mexico,  but nonetheless, 

A resonant conversation

Conversation between Lara Goldmann and Elizabeth Shores at the border between Texas and Chihuaha using walkie-talkies.
10/17/2013

Photo by Emily Gonzales

Collaboration with Visual March to Prespes

Places of memory - Fields of vision

Contemporary Art Center of Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki, Greece

December 21, 2012 - February 24, 2013

Visual March to Prespes, working display of collaborative images

Land Arts of the American West collaborated with the Greek artist group, Visual March of Prespes, on a experiential exploration of the borderlands during our time in Buena Vista, El Paso, Texas. While conducting our Land Arts project, Cement Lake, which investigated an accidental wetland that sprouted up on the edge of Barrio Buena Vista, we held several skype conferences with Visual March of Prespes, discussing our investigations, methods, and discoveries. During one of the conferences, we took the Greek contingency on a live video walking tour of the Land Arts encampment and presented a live visual pan of our surroundings: pointing out the border fence, the contested and dry Rio Grande River, and the patchwork of residential, industrial, wetland, and highway networks.

Land Arts then selected ten images from the surrounding area of Buena Vista, El Paso, Tx, to send to Visual March of Prespes. These images were identified by participating artists as being representative of objects, environments, and moments engaging a discussion of borders.

Participating artists include: Eric Cook, Bill Gilbert, Jeanette Hart-Mann, KB Jones, Jeffrey Nibert, Eso Robinso, and Amelia Zaraftis.

Ameila Zaraftis

Buena Vista, El Paso, TX, USA. 2012.

"In, out; this, that; yours, mine; all under the same sky."

KB Jones

Cement Lake, Buena Vista, El Paso, TX, USA. 2012.

"The salt cedar provides a hiding place near the border of the US and Mexico, in the town of Buena Vista."

Bill Gilbert

Mount Christo Rey, El Paso, TX, USA. 2012.

"Petrified dinosaur prints from a time before borders, projecting out of a hillside along the Rio Grande, in El Paso."

Eric Cook

Monument #1, US/Mexico Border. 2012.

"This image portrays a political border, it is the border between the United States and Mexico."

Eso Robinson

Buena Vista, El Paso, TX, USA. 2012.

"This image depicts a section of the high-tension lines that both connect and cut through the town of Buena Vista, TX, representing a constant physical and a forceful unseen presence in this geographically and sociopolitically liminal community."

Jeanette Hart-Mann

Cement Lake, Buena Vista, El Paso, TX, USA. 2012.

"Memories of a home-run hit and a desire that punctures the boundary of immanent domain."

Jeanette Hart-Mann

Cement Lake, Buena Vista, El Paso, TX, USA. 2012.

"In proximity to a lost softball, I find a terrifying object, mysterious and strangely cannonball-like."

Jeffrey Nibert

Buena Vista, El Paso, TX, USA. 2012.

Jeffrey Nibert

Monument #1, US/Mexico Border. 2012.

Jeffrey Nibert

Buena Vista, El Paso, TX, USA. 2012.

THE BORDER

In the blue borderland sky

A pair of black crows

Sweeping low

Moving in one synchronized faith

Every turn, considered

Every twist, measured

An invisible instant passes amid

the language linking their bodies

watching them watching us watching them

¡Ahora somos libres!

Thick brown ribbon of bifurcation

unfurls its desire from the banks of the Rio Grande

and slithers into the Pacific Ocean

Broken now only by cold concrete obelisks

Where Juan declared his love for Esther with a sharpie marker

Where Angel Cruz left everything behind

Where history entreats itself for forgiveness

and draws a sharp breath

and shuts its eyes

an instant before

it hurls more broken bodies across the line

Where ragged backpacks instead of shrines

Where plastic bottle instead of chalice

Where Highway 10 instead of sacrament

¡Ahora somos libres!

In the blue borderland sky

A pair of predator drones

Sweeping low

Moving in one synchronized faith

Every turn, considered

Every twist, measured

An invisible instant passes amid

the language linking their bodies

watching them watching us watching them

chris galanis

10/11/2011

Borderlines: Imaginary & Materialized

On site tracking sign with Lordsburgh, NM border patrol agents, out of focus are Jen Hart-Mann and guest artists John Reid & David Taylor.

David Taylor has cultivated trusting relations with U.S. Customs and Border Protection along with many personal connections to border patrol agents. Taylor is working on a project documenting border monuments along the international line. Our experience has been super charged with much due to Taylor’s standing with Homeland Security,... you could say we got the VIP treatment.

Driving along the borderline in a caravan lead by yet another generous and willing border agent.

The Notion of Nation

Spending time in space where these two nations allowed for new perspective and reflection on the place we associate with the U.S./Mexican border. I am continuously amazed by the emotional and mental charge which can exist in a physical place, an elusive tension that permeates the borderlands.

The view from a peak driving west along the borderline towards the town of Douglas, AZ. The notion of nation extends into the horizon, materialized by two countries dividing one land. Intimidating infrastructure extending as far as to continue into the Pacific Ocean, built and funded by just one country.

Facing South across the landscape one can be witness to the artifacts left behind by Northbound travelers. The obelisk shaped border monument in the left side of frame is one of the many David Taylor has been documenting.

Australian artists’ John Reid and Marzena Wasikowska joined us for the first few days out. While on site in Copper Canyon the artists’ gave an exclusive presentation sharing their latest projects.

Below is a snapshot of a performance piece by Reid entitled Walking the Solar System.

During our time camping in Copper Canyon we decided on a ground less than 2 miles North of the borderline. Our first morning on site Taylor lead our group on a hike to a border monument near a site where Northbound drug trafficking is common, we visited a layup site where smugglers lurk in hopes of undetected passage.

The view from the top of Coronado Peak, part of the Huachuca mountain range .

- Melodie D'Amour