Creating democracy: a dialogue with Krzysztof Wodiczko - Interview - Cover Story

Wodiczko: Perhaps there is something about the earlier projections that illuminated the dangers and limitations of a specific situation. I think this shift to video may stimulate a different kind of discussion. The more recent works create an appetite or expectation for more, which I am not sure I can fulfill. During my projection piece in Charlestown, Massachusetts, having first refused to be part of the project, some mothers of victims came to me to say, "Now we are ready." I suggested that now that they were ready, they did not need a project--my project--to speak.

Phillips: It is important to understand these kinds of projects as inherently inconclusive. I think that as your work gravitates to more open systems, it may become less settled.

Wodiczko: The two projects that I did in Tijuana are a useful way to understand these changes and differences. The Border Projection (1988) was a two-part still projection that took place on consecutive evenings on San Diego's Museum of Man and the Centro Cultural in Tijuana. Situated on either side of the United States-Mexico border, the project explored colonialism, borders, and illegal aliens. The Centro Cultural was designed by Manuel Rosen in 1982 to celebrate Mexican cultural heritage. I projected on the building's domed theater the image of a man with his hands clasped behind his head--the position taken during an arrest and search. For the Tijuana Projection (2001) I used both instruments and video projection. Young women who endure terrible conditions in the maquiladoras, the region's factories, participated in a yearlong process to animate--to become--this historical building. At the same time, they forced the building to become them. They appropriated the symbolic authority, as well as the physiognomy of the architecture. Their faces filled the entire elevation of the domed building. They engaged in a highly mediated fearless speech where they were simultaneously responding to their own projections through the instruments they used to project their faces and voices on the dome.

Of course, the media understood that the women who were speaking were not those who are normally heard in public space. This architectural landmark suddenly became human. Regardless of how critical we may choose to be, we have a psychological affair with these civic structures. We invest our hopes and desires. Buildings are conceived to have this effect. The Centro Cultural, in particular, brought modernity to Tijuana. But most progress is the consequence of a catastrophe. And the women who animated the building during the Tijuana Projection have witnessed firsthand the catastrophe of progress and modern industry.

Phillips: Did the site change in significant ways in the thirteen years between your two projects? Or did your own understanding or perception of this space change over time?

Wodiczko: The site itself did not change. It remains a symbol or icon; it is a busy place. There were other developments. For example, the number of factories along the border increased dramatically. Most of the employees are teenaged girls. They are the economic base. Males of a similar age are unemployed. These young women became temporary actors on the building. This all occurred because it was part of a festival. So here we come to another topic: public art and the festival.