After the Exhibition
While the physical Hostile Terrain 94 Münster exhibition is now closed, the story of border deaths does not end with the last toe tag mounted to the wall.
People continue to die at borders everywhere every day. Hostile Terrain 94 is not meant to be an artwork that can be finished and then packed away and be forgotten. It is meant to raise awareness about an ongoing humanitarian crisis.
Missed the Exhibition?
Hostile Terrain 94 is an artwork in the making. The toe tags were were pinned to it little by little throughout the exhibition period, filling the emptiness on the map gradually. The initial emptiness of the map mirrors the invisibility which characterizes so many refugees' and migrants' fates. The toe tags, mounted to the wall map, are meant to make these fates more visible.
In this timelapse video, you can cast a glance at the volunteers behind the window facade and witness how they mounted the toe tags to the wall.
Complementing this insight, you can also experience the Hostile Terrain 94 Augmented Reality, a virtual and interactive experience that accompanies the material HT94 exhibit. HT94 Augmented Reality combines powerful 360° visuals of the Sonora Desert with deeply personal interviews and 3D scans of objects left behind in the desert. Find out more here.
What happens now?
What happens with the exhibit now? Parts of it will be stored in Münster, another part will be sent on its way back to the Undocumented Migration Project in the USA. HT94 initiator Jason De León and his team plan to collect toe tags from around the word and to keep them and turn them into a permanent monument. Jason talked about his plans for the toe tags in our Q&A "Meet the Curator". You can find the recording here.
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Become Part of HT94: A Moment of Global Remembrance
A Moment of Global Remembrance is a global and digital Hostile Terrain 94 Project that everyone can participate in. It has grown out of the crisis of the pandemic in order to give everyone who wishes to commemorate border deaths the chance to do so safely despite Covid restrictions.
Support the worldwide effort of raising awareness about deadly border politics.
Learn more here and register for participation here.
Learn more
A lot of visitors realized, standing in front of the HT94 Münster exhibition, that they weren't really aware of what is happening at the US-Mexican border (and other borders) and why it is happening. You can therefore find here some resources meant to help contextualize border deaths.
- Prevention through Deterrence: Read about the deadly border enforcement strategy here.
- HT94 Münster blog: students and volunteers put the project into perspective.
- Find more useful reading materials under "Resources"
- Watch Prof. Mita Banerjee's lecture:
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