Entering Sacred Grounds- Charo Oquet

Although its production began in late 2018, This project has been in gestation since 2011, when the research for this first audiovisual work started. This project melds installation, image, and movement with voices that addresses critical issues of contemporary Dominican immigrant and queer culture to explore issues of immigration and social injustices reflecting the current cultural, social, and political realities and the tenuous line between memory, and reality through narratives that unfold within a landscape.

The immersive installation explores concepts of sacred spaces and spiritual encounters. It creates an ambiguous and safe space where fictional and documentary dimensions are blended, creating a third territory of language. The installation will include works that imply that they are markers of energy that have become the conduits of energy. Like chakra stones that mark the radiation of energy within the earth or the body. It includes pieces from research into the origins of magic writing such as veves and the endeavor to unite abstraction with mythical concepts. It will highlight the multidimensional character of rituals and politics.

The exhibition will include a video documentary that addresses critical issues of contemporary queer and immigrant culture. The video documentary that dates back to 2011 composed of various urgent interviews with Arrayanos (Dominican/Haitians and LGBTI and queer artists) who discuss the critical and often dire situation of lesbian, gay, trans and intersex lives in the Dominican Republic as well as in Miami. Confronted with innumerable challenges, Arrayanos and LGBTI citizens are vulnerable targets of a violent anti-immigrant and homophobic rhetoric and remain largely under-recognized in a context that deems sexual, racist, religious and gender issues minor in a deeply patriarchal and Catholic culture.