SONAR: HUMAN TRAFFICKING MONUMENT
was Directors' Choice for the TENANCINGO SQUARE ARCH OUT LOUD MEDIASCAPE COMPETITION
Certificate:
AW Ecosocial Design
with Armina Pilav and Alexis Ierides
Arch Out Loud
Sonar is a monumental mediascape of three scales - intimate, public, and cosmological - in honor of the transformational, theatrical, and international power of women in the world’s oldest profession that transcends the individual self, the city of Tenancingo, and the geographic landscape of Mexico.
1. Intimate scale is interactive space choreographed as a social sculpture informed by the existing traces of the woman in the Tenancingo entertainment world. Flowers, cards, dolls, magazine clippings, photographs, and other items are deposited in slits in the stage above as prayers. Digital media can also
be downloaded here. These items fall into the space below, collected in netted bags, becoming collective memory, illuminated by the sky through the slit above. People enter the inner space by descending a staircase by the plaza and entering through a small door. The illuminated nets of prayers hug the edges of this altar room, leaving the center in darkness for silent prayer. This circular altar room is filmed randomly throughout day and night. At 00:00 every night, 15 minutes of this film of people in the space and the collective items/ prayers deposited is projected onto the massive cosmological tensegrity canvas that encircles the plaza, sharing these prayers with the world.
2. Public scale activates the existing square in front of the church into the shared stage for public events as Tenancingo carnival, market, religious celebrations during church events or for other public events. Behind the stage is the half-moon structure made by earth blocks that is meant to be open exhibition space for educational purposes related to the existing processes of trafficking of woman, available for NGOs local schools and the Municipality. It is an open and flexible space for community events and everyday use.
3. Cosmological scale is a canvas made in the form of transparent ring that will be used for local and international interactions through digital tools and social media. Canvas supported by aluminum tensegrity structure will be used for real-time projection of images, words, articles submitted by the Mexican and nternational public through dedicated mobile applications, juxtaposing illusions of love and woman trafficking processes. Every day at 00:00 randomly selected footages will be projected from the intimate space in order to share family mourning, trafficking victims stories or activities such as leaving flowers or other objects.