In 2019, I initiated a project called 69,550. It became an ongoing mixed media performance art piece engaged with the record number of known migrant children detained by the Trump administration in the United States that year alone.
The intent of the piece was to take a staggering numeral statistic of a group of children unseen and unheard and transform it into a tangible visual where each number has its own weight and significance representing a human life.
The work was created in tandem with the London based Art Dream Foundation for an online solo exhibition of my work at the start of the pandemic.
69,550 was also incorporated as part of a live online performance and vigil on July 4th, 2020 for the Thessaloniki Queer Arts Festival where the names of migrants who had died while in ICE detention during the Trump administration’s time in office were read and remembered.
Each number is painted in red, white and blue paint on the same kind of emergency blankets used in concentration camps of migrant children in the United States. By the end of the project, the painting will cover 100 sheets.
mateo-vargas.com 