Mother Tongue

I visited my sister in London. We went to the Tate Britain and I saw an installation by Zineb Sedira called «Mother Tongue».

The display caption says: «the reflects on storytelling as a way to preserve cultural identity across generations. It underscores the difficulty of maintaining a shared heritage across national and linguistic divides and acknowledges the complexity of identity.»

It’s three TV’s playing simultaneous videos: one of the artist and her mother having a conversation in Arabic, the second of the artist and her daughter conversing in French, and the third of her daughter and mother conversing in English.

The piece made me think of what videos would sound like if I recorded the conversations I have now and in the future, if I had a child. What language would we speak to each other? Where in the world will we be by then? Would we understand each other? Would my mother understand? Will my accent change? Would the child look like me?

An introduction

I was born in Tokyo in 1993 to a Mexican family I constantly miss. I have lived in many cities and become fascinated by paper. I enjoy working with it the most because I like the materiality it offers storytelling, while also being light enough to bring with me wherever I go. 

I am interested in migration because I am a migrant and understand the importance of creating spaces where stories about people in transit belong. In an effort to offer a place for these stories, I make collages.