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In physical form, this is a 20x30 archival inkjet print Sanctuary (After Utada) can be viewed as a digital piece here. It also exists outside the web as a installation of photographs. This piece is being shown at The Wrong: New Digital Art Biennale | São Paulo. Made & Exhibited worldwide in the Homeostasis Lab Pavilion curated by Julia Borges Araña and Guilherme Brandão as the web based version. The first image on the left is a screenshot of the lyrics of the song Sanctuary by Hikaru Utada which was featured in the Kingdom Hearts II video game. I grew up like many other New York Salvadoran kids of my generation completely immersed in video games. I always gravitated towards games where the main character was removed from their place of origin like Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy X. Those were the stories I felt the most. Here I am re-contextualizing the lyrics of the song to address familial love, community and the diasporic experience. The song lyrics are in conversation with three screenshots from the official facebook fan page of my dad's village in El Salvador. Arambala in Morazán was destroyed during the war by bombing done by the U.S backed Salvadoran Govt. and It has since been repopulated. This facebook page has become a sanctuary of sorts and facilitates exchange between families split up by the war. Content ranges from shout-out posts to family members, to memes about making the journey across three borders, announcing deaths, announcing soccer team wins, to posts about day to day activities in the town. The last photograph in the installation shows people lining up to serve themselves food at a Quinceañera of a cousin of mine that happened in Queens, New York. New York Salvis usually rent out huge halls to hold such community events.

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