Mexican Woman Looking for Work in Ljubljana

“An artist acts like a criminal who returns to the scene of the crime, even when that place is a memory.”

A One-Second Shield
Public space action

In this piece I use the act of hugging as a symbol of momentary protection. Here, the act of hugging represents a shield as if you were taking a bullet for someone else. Organized crime, and the government (represented by the police and the military) are carrying on a war in which people from both sides are dying daily (the “good” side and the “bad” side, which sometimes mix). Nowadays, this battle is taking place all over Mexico, and for a number of years this battle has been very open and common in public, and incidents may take place at any time of the day and in any place. Civilians may also die if they happen to find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.

For this piece I asked police officers to wear bullet-proof vests in order to more strongly emphasise the protection needed, and wore one myself during the action. This type of action is meant to be reproduced in other countries with local police officers, by sociological means. Nahomi Ximenez

Organization: City of Women.

Mexican Woman Looking for Work in Ljubljana
Action taking place during the festival; project presentation Saturday 17th at noon in Cafe Open.

Help me find a job in Ljubljana. This action shows what it means to wear the shoes of an immigrant who goes to a foreign country, to a place that is a “stranger” because he/she doesn’t belong there culturally. I will perform two basic actions that a migrant worker would do in a foreign country: filling out the paperwork to have a work permit and working somewhere.
This action is intended to put myself, for a brief moment, in the position of someone who goes to a place to look for a better life through work, and the process will register some of the difficulties that the whole process could present, such as language and legal obstacles. By doing so, during this process I mean to enter into some of the feelings of an alien worker; we’ll see the results of such living research.
Can you work for someone that you can’t understand, and who can’t understand you either? Is it easy to get a work permit? I want to show this from the inside. Nahomi Ximenez

Organization: City of Women; In collaboration with: Cafe Open.