Muertos Civiles / Dead Civilians

Video Installation. Language: Spanish, Subtitles: German / Spanish - 2009.

My Project carries on from my previous research on the subject of illegal migrations. The research process starts from a seminar in which I invited a group of illegal women to analyse and think about their own situation in Switzerland, contrasting it with the situation of other groups of illegal immigrants as shown in different documentary films.

In the seminar, the illegal Latin American women are invited to analyse the way in which Bruno Ulmer's film Welcome Europa presents the situation of a group of male illegal immigrants.

Bruno Ulmer's film explores, amongst others, issues such as prostitution and drug addiction. The group of illegal Latin American women is asked to make a critical analysis of the situation shown, confronting it with their own reality in Zurich. This allows us to differentiate the various problems affecting different groups of illegal immigrants coming from disparate cultures.

I try to show, as a process, the cultural, political and aesthetic complexity of both what is shown to us and what is hidden from us. Illegal migrations are inserted within the context of economic globalization, which gives rise to a set of problems related to language and to issues of social, cultural and sexual identity, as well as nationality and history.

Ingrid Wildi Merino







installation views

entrevista terminada 2

Installationview, Muertos Civiles, 2009
Uebersetzungsparadoxien und Missverständnisse, Teil 2 Shedhalle, Zurich, Switzerland