Director: Estephania Gonzalez, Josephine Ortiz Merida

Bio: Estephania González is a Arizona-based multimedia artist from the Midwest. Using video, animation, installation, and performance, she explores concepts of spacetime, cosmologies and identity. González explores the complexities of identity politics and their relation to the physical and psychological borderlands. This concept is the foundation for much of her work from which she creates new narratives that reflect upon and take into consideration a contemporary understanding of the human condition through her lens as a Latinx woman living in the United States. She is inspired by physics theories, Mexica cosmologies and how these two intersect with personal identity. Using the cosmos to reflect on the microcosm, González’s work aims at sharing visual narratives to better understand each other in a time where harsh realities plague our species and our planet. She has done performance artworks in Mexico, Iowa, Arizona, and Chile and her works have been shown at the UNI Gallery of Art, Step Gallery, and Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. González received her MFA in Intermedia Art from Arizona State University. She received a BFA in Performance Art and BA in Art History from the University of Northern Iowa. She has been a resident at Guapamacataro, Michoacan Mexico, and La Wayaka Current in the Atacama Desert in Chile.

Film: A celestial body lands in northern Arizona and takes a reverse migration journey to the border to be confronted with the harsh realities of these borderlands. Huitzilopotchli is the Mexica god of War that also represents the south. The video explores the ecological, physical, and psychological trauma that affects the land, animals, peoples and immigrants of the borderlands caused by the erecting of the border wall and recent immigration policies. Huitzilopotchli explores concepts of cleansing and healing rituals along the border through performative actions, and pulls on the physics theory of quantum tunneling to imagine ways to help heal the land.

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