Jason De León

Hostile Terrain 94 (HT94) is a prototype of a participatory political art installation organized by the Undocumented Migration Project that launches simultaneously in 150 locations around the globe in fall 2020. A 20-foot-long map of the Arizona/Mexico border is populated with 3,117 handwritten toe tags that contain information about those who have died while migrating, including name (if known), age, sex, cause of death, condition of body, and location. Some tags contain QR and augmented-reality codes that link to content related to migrant stories, and visuals connected to immigration that can be accessed via cell phone. HT94 is intended to memorialize and bear witness to the thousands who have died as a result of the U.S. Border Patrol’s immigration enforcement strategy known as “Prevention Through Deterrence.”

The most crucial (and interactive) aspect of the installation is the act of audience members committing their time and energy to meticulously fill out the death details for all 3,117 toe tags, and then placing these tags in the exact locations on the map where those individuals were found.

See more on the exhibition here. 

​​​​​​Este mapa contiene 3,117 etiquetas que representan a las personas que murieron al cruzar la frontera entre los Estados Unidos y México entre mediados de la década de 1990 y 2019. Las etiquetas marrón claro representan personas que han sido identificadas. Las etiquetas naranjas representan restos humanos no identificados. Estas etiquetas fueron completadas por estudiantes de Bard College y miembros de la comunidad en noviembre de 2019. Varios de las etiquetas este muro tienen códigos QR que se conectan al contenido en línea con respecto a los problemas de los migrantes a lo largo de la frontera sur de Estados Unidos.