Miami University’s art is welcomed far beyond just the borders of campus.

Professor of Architecture and Interior Design Diane Fellows and her collaborative artwork at the European Cultural Center’s (ECC) Venice 2023 Architecture Biennial in Italy. She did it with Adrian Falcon of the Falcon Art Center Foundation and Diana Lizbeth Zuñiga Hernandez of Global Indigenous Collective. Miami associate professor of Theatre Gion DeFrancesco collaborated with scenography and technical support. The installation includes the design works of Miami University Architecture Studios Boundaries, Borders and the Imaginary.

This year’s theme, “Time Space Existence,” opened May 20 and runs through Nov. 26, parallel to the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023.

Contesting and Bridging Boundaries and Borders: the US-Mexico Indigenous and Migration Experience – Miami University (Diane Fellows, Gion DeFrancesco); Falcon Art Center Foundation (Adrian Jésus Falcon, Diana Lizbeth Zuñiga Hernandez); Miami University Architecture Studios: Boundaries, Borders and the Imaginary 2021, 2023.

The collaborative project, entitled “Contesting and Bridging Boundaries and Borders: the US-Mexico Indigenous and Migration Experience,” reaches across communities both literally and figuratively. 

In the immersive performance space of Room 14 of the Palazzo Mora, the collaboration team explores  indigenous languages and issues of migration, refuge, and diaspora along the US-Mexico border at Del Rio, Texas. By analyzing their personal experiences on opposite sides of the border, the collaborators want to learn whether or not architecture can facilitate new ways of considering the current global migration narrative. 

“The catalyst is a life-long personal engagement with these global issues,” Fellows said. “The focus is the engagement of the ‘next generation’ of creative thinkers and doers who offer hope that better ideas, processes, and actions to support human rights can come to fruition.”

Their work consists of two paintings by Falcon and Hernandez, two viewer-participatory murals, wall-to-floor video with audio.

Part of Falcon’s inspiration came from his family member, Diana Lizbeth Zuñiga Hernandez, who has to stay in Mexico. In early 2023, she was only five minutes from the rest of her family in Del Rio but currently, she is many kilometers away as she resides in Hidalgo, Mexico due to the restrictions of current migration policies. Hernandez shares that her experience engaging with Miami architecture students through Zoom and being able to see the work in Venice has broadened her perspective and horizons. 

Fellows’ work in migration narratives stems from familial experiences, continued education about the effects of contemporary migration conditions on communities, and the facilitation of design studios working with refugee communities since 2016.

Fellows and Falcon submitted their proposal to ECC on July 30, 2022 and shipped everything to Venice by May 2023. Later, Miami’s Office of Research and Innovation and the College of Creative Arts granted them $20,000 to cover half of their costs for the exhibit space and processes. Miami’s Office of Global Initiatives supported work in Del Rio in October 2022 and the Parent and Family Fund supported students' travel to Del Rio and Acuña, Mexico, in March 2023.

In February 2023, Falcon joined Miami’s Architecture Studio for a few days, facilitating one of the murals created by the studio students. The students reflected on their studio involvement in two videos (link, link) that also stream on LED screens in the exhibition.

During the opening week of the exhibition, Fellows and Falcon, with the support of the ECC, signed on students from the Art High School Michelangelo Guggenheim, Mestre, a few miles outside Venice to craft a second mural in the Palazzo garden. They based their idea on bureaucracy, writing words on large canvases, painting classmates’ portraits as their visual narratives evolved, and connecting with each other.

“It was rewarding to work with the next generation as their ideas give hope for the future,” Fellows said. “Seeing/hearing moments of the installation connected with what I hope are meditative moments of intensity and resolve.”

Overall, the piece amounted to filming border landscapes and crossings, telling the stories of the people of Del Rio, Texas, and the neighboring Acuña, Mexico, interviewing the Mexico and Guatemala consulates, the studio design response for and with communities migrating, and engaging visitors passing through the garden space of the Palazzo Mora painting their own stories.

“It’s good for students, for all of us, to know that collaboration, while challenging, is for the good of communities,” Fellows said. “When we can find common ground and common intentions, magic can happen for the greater good.”

Fellows thanked Mary Rogero, chair of Miami’s Department of Architecture and Interior Design, for assistance in bringing Falcon to the 2023 Architecture Studio; Joe Hawkins, director of the Parent and Family Fund for funding 12 students' flights to Del Rio during spring break 2023; and Miami Architecture graduate Kayla Skurski along with her mother, Jenni, for their hand in the Palazzo garden mural.  

For more, visit Fellows and Falcon on Facebook.

See below for a list of participants and thank yous.