Caltranzit

Caltranzit was an artist collective that included myself, Christine Foerster, Alex Dragulescu, and Mark Oliver. The collective collaborated with artists living in Tijuana and San Diego on a series of projects involving a 1975 red Malibu Chevy as the mobile site for performance-interventions in the border region. The projects were funded through a UCIRA grant, and were meant to create a line of communication between artists working in both cities and acted as a way for the four of us, all recent arrivals, to explore the region. A multi-media sculpture, the car evolved conceptually and aesthetically as it displayed the cumulative evidence of our activities within our communities.

Among other transformations, the car became a free, bilingual Taxi Collectivo, a private love taxi, a distributor of Poemales, a contraband transporter of concealed books by the Bookleggers, a mobile movie theater, and a multi-media installation. The car was a metaphor for movement across the border region, as it was continually displaced, relocated, altered, and embellished by those who shared it.

Caltranzit: Jenny Donovan, Alex Dragulescu, Christine Foerster and Mark Oliver.

Collaborators: Amaranta Caballero Prado, Abril Castro, Mayra Luna, Kara Lynch, Omar Pimienta, Octavio Castellanos Rodríguez and Sayak Valencia Triana.