The Netherlands - Amsterdam - De Brakke Grond - Arno Roncada - California Dreaming

Arno Roncada
California Dreaming
1 October - 5 November 2011

De Brakke Grond presents new work by Belgian photographer Arno Roncada. In the exhibition, California Dreaming, Roncada shows the traces left in Mexico by mass migration to the United States. He explicitly uses documentary photography as a means of obtaining insight. How does an abstract phenomenon like migration reveal itself to us, and how do we experience this?

The key works in the exhibition are The Night Hike Project series – photos of people trying to illegally cross the American border. The photos are loaded with tension and ambiguity – as is the story behind them. Roncada took the photos in a village where, every Saturday night, a 'caminata nocturna' takes place: an nocturnal hike on foot with the aim of reaching 'America'. At least, so it seems. The whole situation is staged: the human traffickers and border guards are played by actors. The border has literally been moved, hundreds of kilometres. During the trip, reality and illusion merge.

Arno Roncada (Genk, 1973) studied at the Media & Design Academy in Genk and at the HISK in Antwerp. This spring, he gave a workshop in Zacatecas (Mex) at which young artists investigated the theme of migration on the basis of their own personal surroundings.

Image: Untitled from the series The Night Hike Project © Arno Roncada

More information: www.brakkegrond.nl - www.arnoroncada.com