Let's Talk of a System (2010)
Sergio De La Torre
Paisajes, 2000-2005
Photograph printed on Luster paper mounted on Plexiglas
Paisajes is a series of 4 digital black and white photographs. The photographs are of landscapes of some of the 900 assembly plants in the city of Tijuana, Mexico. Tijuana has nearly 50 Industrial Parks and more than 900 assembly plants, maquiladoras. Most of them are transnational. The first Industrial Parks were installed in the outskirts in the 1960/70s. Due to the rapid growth of the city, Tijuana grows an acre a day, the Industrial Parks are now simultaneously Residential Zones. Nevertheless the mechanisms that are used for the construction of such Industrial Parks deny the human presence in these areas.
Bulldozers, caterpillars and other types of heavy machinery settle in the colonias shaping hills and valleys allowing the construction of transnational assembly plants in which filters, batteries, cassettes, flybacks, oxygen masks, clothes, toys, keyboards, etc. are assembled. The result is a series of monolithic buildings at the top of the hills. With the aid of a computer the photographs have been altered: some of the houses have been erased; windows, doors and fences also have been erased from the assembly plants to emphasize their sculptural aspect and to mimic the language used by those who design and install the Industrial Parks.
Let's Talk of a System
May 19 - July 3, 2010
Intersection for the Arts
San Francisco, CA
Photo credit: Scott Chernis