Date: Friday, November 21, 2025
Time: 12:00–2:00 PM
Location: Monira Foundation, Jersey City
Languages: English and Spanish
Join Monira Foundation for an afternoon of guided tours of the exhibition Dignidad and works from Deportation Series in the Open Book(s) exhibition, presented in connection with the national initiative Fall for Freedom, a movement uniting artists and institutions across the country in defense of democracy and free expression.
This bilingual program invites visitors to explore two powerful projects that confront histories of political violence, displacement, and collective memory through archival materials, sound, sculpture, and works on paper.
María Verónica San Martín: Dignidad, 2018-Ongoing
Dignidad is a multimedia project exploring the legacy of Colonia Dignidad, an enclave in southern Chile founded by former Nazi officers in 1961 and later transformed into a detention and torture site during the Pinochet dictatorship (1973–1990). Through archival research, sound, sculpture, and performance, San Martín reconstructs a complex network of secrecy and repression while revealing how its echoes persist today.
Her work makes visible the institutional violence and trauma embedded in the site and contributes to current efforts by Chile and Germany to transform Colonia Dignidad into a site of memory and justice.
Aileen Bassis: Deportation Series, 2025
Bassis’s Deportation Series addresses the deportations of undocumented residents under the Trump administration, many of whom were denied due process. Combining drawing, paper lithography, digital printing, and thread, the series visualizes both the systems of state control and the deep personal connections severed by forced removal. The thread becomes a symbolic act of mending—linking the stories of fathers, sons, and neighbors to the communities they were taken from.
About Fall for Freedom
Fall for Freedom (November 21–22, 2025) is a nationwide call for creative resistance in the face of growing authoritarianism. Across the U.S., galleries, museums, and performance spaces are hosting exhibitions and programs that affirm the power of art as a form of truth-telling and collective care.
Art matters more than ever.
