Porta(Latin): gate, entrance
Porta(EN)- :denoting something that is movable or portable, often used as part of a proprietary name.
Porta(SP): holder
Phonetic play: til ---> till? Porta—>Puerta (SP)
In collaboration with curator Carlos Flores, Comfort Station honors and creatively engages with the traditions of Día de los Muertos for a third year with Porta(til). This year’s installation considers the gentrifying neighborhoods of both Logan Square and Pilsen, and the community concerns that exist as a result. Pilsen artists Jassiel Serna, Oscar Lopez Flores, and Carlos Flores will produce individual wheelbarrow ofrendas to be installed on Comfort Station’s public lawn, and Logan Square artist Cesar Luna will produce a similar ofrenda to be exhibited at the National Mexican Museum of Art’s Xicago Ofrenda Festival.
Porta(til) aims to converse with the histories of Logan Square and Pilsen but will focus especially on pressing contemporary issues, particularly highlighting the tensions between public health, forced displacement, socioenvironmental harm, and immigration by engaging contrasting but interconnected visual languages: (1) the language of immigrant/day labor that I personally associate with wheelbarrows from growing up helping my father with construction work, a trade he started in Mexico and brought with him to the United States when he immigrated, (2) the cultural imaginary of the ofrenda as a portal that connects the living and the dead, a metaphorical point of arrival that will resonate with its intended viewers on many levels, (3) the language of spirituality and ceremony by creating a space that questions what “sacredness” is and where it can take place, (4) the wheelbarrow as tool used for tending to the earth (an entry point to environmental conversations), and (5) the mobile nature of it a visual language of “moving”, migration, and bringing home with you.
Furthermore, the participating civically-focused artists who will activate these sites will hone-in and complicate these conversations by including works responding to the pressing community concerns that matter to them the most.
Event Schedule
All events will be held at the Comfort Station and are free & open to the public.
Sunday October 15
Carlos Flores Porta(til) Performance
In this performance, curator and lead artist Carlos Flores will push one wheelbarrow ofrenda from his work place and studio at Chicago Art Department to Comfort Station’s public lawn, traversing 7 west-side neighborhoods in the process. As he travels from one gentrifying neighborhood to the next, he will use the ofrenda to collect bandit signs. Community members are welcomed to join him along the way as he takes on this taxing task.
October 15, 3-4:30 PM
Portales de Abundancia / Portals of Abundance Facilitated by Silvia Ines Gonzalez
Participants will be led through a series of writing prompts to develop accordion books as portal sites. What does the radical imagination envision for the places we want to see in existence? What does it mean to both carry and architect spaces with sacred recognition of who we were and want to become together?
The session includes small group brainstorming and large group reflection on both the ideas of portatil and portals as sites of potentiality throughout including an art-making zine component.
This workshop is limited to 15 spots. Please sign up below.
October 30, 6-8 PM
Understanding The Basics of (Photo)journalism through an Inclusive Model Facilitated by Sebastian Hidalgo
In 1892, Ida B. Wells famously wrote, “The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press.” Journalism institutions measure success similarly through the number of people who engage in the news and what is learned. Photojournalism is a part of the process, yet it struggles to evolve beyond its solitary practices. Its long-standing relationship with war, which requires little to no basic human interaction, overshadows its civic and educational potential. It has become a tool where the Ends justify the Means without question––which many newsrooms consider an “editorial risk” outside of breaking news.
Today, 93 percent of photographers surveyed across 87 countries believe collaborating closely with those photographed is not a journalistic priority, according to a 2022 study titled The State of Photography by Knights Foundation and Catchlight io. A change in methodology is needed.
In our workshop, photojournalist Sebastián Hidalgo will break down his image-making process and show participants how to root photojournalism in some form of civic infrastructure. It is open to all skill levels and professions, including but not limited to hobbyists, working photographers, and photo editors. Together, we will dissect the basic fundamentals of photography, dive into a long-forgotten worker-photography movement, and show how to break the power dynamic between the photographer and those in front of the camera.
Hidalgo abides by The Society of Professional Journalism's Code Of Ethics and is a part of the Just Action Racial Equity Collaborative.
For questions regarding the exhibition and events please contact: katie@comfortstationlogansquare.org.