A place is more than its geographical location on the map. It has sensory qualities such as smell and taste, light and shadow, sound and echo. It is shaped by our subjective experiences and memories, by histories, cultures, and ideologies. A place can be a site of nostalgia, privilege, and constraint, as it can be a site of possibility, hypothesis, and fantasy. Engaging with the uniqueness of a place, local specificity, and cultural authenticity is a hike on boggy terrain. It could easily nurture patriotic and commercial thinking. However, focusing on the particularities of a place does not necessarily draw on constructed ideas of the present and past – it pays attention to what surrounds and shapes us.
This virtual exhibition presents works by six Bachelor Fine Arts students from La Esmeralda and the Zurich University of the Arts, created as part of a transcultural exchange on senses of places in Switzerland, Mexico, and around the world. Their explorations have emerged by looking around here and there. They move through the urban-rural divide, turn the eye to the dawn, imaginatively bring environments to the ears, are active in neighborhoods, and reveal their own experiences as young artists on the move.

Hybrid workshops with contributions by Vanessá Heer, Iurhi Peña, Xanath Ramo, Vicente Razo, and Johanna Vieli took place prior to this exhibition.

The International Office of the ZHdK financially supported this project. Special thanks to Sofía Guzmán Doblado and Sebastian Roldan for their work on the website.