Grounded in empowering community as a space of existing cultural production, Pasado Presente is a community engagement project on the site of Tios Tacos in Riverside Ca. Artists Martin Sanchez, Cynthia Herrera and community members collaborate in archiving and creating culture from everyday materials and practices. In concert, Sanchez, proprietor and sculptor, and Herrera, photographer/archivist, work together to create a space for the community to share personal histories and produce artworks. Wings, embodying the experience of transition of this emerging community, are created by Sanchez from discarded materials from the neighborhood around Tios Tacos. Patterns on the wings are then designed by community members using discarded bottle caps collected from patrons of Tios Tacos and are repurposed as frames for histories and portraits of participants. An ongoing negotiation of past and present, Pasado Presente is a point of intersection, where community uses its past to create a new present, giving new life to the histories and materials of the past. The project includes documentation of sites, oral histories, art production workshops and community events.
In the context of social practice Pasado Presente creates a space for access and self -representation within the larger cultural landscape. The Riverside Art Museum and Riverside Art Make are hosting a residency of Pasado Presente in the greater community At Orange Terrace Park in Riverside. Facilitating workshops for the community to intervene and construct its own narrative in the larger context, this month long residency brings the possibility for collective engagement and exchange. Through this residency Sanchez and Herrera will document the surrounding neighborhood, archive personal histories and conduct a culminating workshop where residents of the Orange Terrace Neighborhood complete the wing design with their bottle cap framed portraits and stories.
In the context of social practice Pasado Presente creates a space for access and self -representation within the larger cultural landscape. The Riverside Art Museum and Riverside Art Make are hosting a residency of Pasado Presente in the greater community At Orange Terrace Park in Riverside. Facilitating workshops for the community to intervene and construct its own narrative in the larger context, this month long residency brings the possibility for collective engagement and exchange. Through this residency Sanchez and Herrera will document the surrounding neighborhood, archive personal histories and conduct a culminating workshop where residents of the Orange Terrace Neighborhood complete the wing design with their bottle cap framed portraits and stories.