rubén garcía marrufo

rubén garcía marrufo is a mexican border artist and self-taught filmmaker born in Los Angeles in 1986 on a Thursday and went back to Mexicali on a Sunday.

Curated by Chris Kraus into the 2012 exhibition "Radical Localism: art and media from Pueblo Nuevo" at Artist Space, New York. Where their fi rst fi lm "Aquí Seguimos" was fi rst shown, went on to win several awards in film festivals around the border region and was written about in Kraus's book "Social Practices".

Since 2012 garcía marrufo has written, produced, shot, edited, sound designed and mixed all of their films and performances. Their most recent work has been part of: MexiCali Biennial at LACE (Los Angeles, 2018), Portland Biennial at Oregon Contemporary (Portland, 2019), Time Based Arts Festival at PICA (Portland, 2020-2021), Forest for the Trees at King Building (Seattle, 2022), DISPERSAL at Ditch Project (Eugene, 2022)

Border art is conceived as a mode of operation, rather than a defi nition. Its emphasis is in its abundance of languages within any single meaning. I take on a strategy of translation rather than representation. Border art aims to undermine the distinction in otherness and give those who encounter my work the opportunity to practice multidimensional perception; to perceive in multiplicity.

Their work is an audiovisual and sculptural fabulation of the awe-inducing instant, gathering narratives that expand the ways we embrace the concept of border, going beyond its social, historical, and political meaning, to manifest border as a site vital for existence. With film and sound as their principal mediums, they edit a montage that fuses poetic fiction, documentary, chronicles, and performance art.

Whoever interacts with the work, they are not always able to perceive the "logic" of it at fi rst nor will they be able to hear the assemblage of discourse within a single language. A greater demand is made on the audience of border-art. The ear of the other must be heard. What is meant by this is that it's not a literal act of listening, but an act of understanding how another perceives. If we are able to do this, you might find yourself crossing a border as well.

These residual moments where we witness something both fulminating and captivating, summoning us to reunite with the wonder of being-in-the-world. In this manner, they articulate the sense of awe and epiphany behind those everyday discoveries that bring an all-too-human sense to existence, a voice that says, “I am Here. Always.”

Thank you for your time.