From May 01, 2026 to May 31, 2026
Passing Through emerges from a reflection on how to represent the migrant experience without resorting to images that may expose, stigmatize, or oversimplify those living through displacement.
Through journeys along migratory routes, shelters, and transitional spaces across Mexico, the project focuses on the traces, objects, and territories that bear witness to these experiences. I am interested in observing roads, refuges, and abandoned belongings as marks of presence, memory, and resilience—objects that function as deferred portraits, capable of speaking about those who were there without directly exposing their identities.
Rather than solely documenting a humanitarian crisis, Passing Through seeks to create forms of representation that remain sensitive to the dignity of migrants, avoiding criminalization and stereotypical portrayals. The photographed spaces—rooms, dining halls, pathways, railway tracks—appear as temporary scenarios marked by waiting, uncertainty, and constant mobility.
My practice combines observation, listening, and accompaniment, understanding that these territories are shaped not only by violence, but also by strategies of survival, solidarity, and hope.
This project proposes a gaze that shifts attention from the face to the trace, from spectacularized events to the memory embedded in objects and spaces, constructing a visual narrative that seeks to foster awareness of the migrant experience from an ethical, critical, and deeply human perspective.
Olivia Vivanco is a visual artist and researcher whose work explores migration, memory, and the ethics of representation. Through photography, video, and archival practices, her projects examine displacement, transit, and the traces left by human movement.
Her work has been exhibited widely in Mexico and internationally, including in Germany, Colombia, Chile, Denmark, Spain, the United States, France, Morocco, Puerto Rico, and Uruguay.
She has received numerous grants and distinctions throughout her career, including major cultural funding and artistic residencies in Mexico, as well as selections in prominent photography, contemporary art, and documentary platforms.
Her work is included in artist book, documentary, and visual culture collections in Latin America.
Vivanco is currently a member of Mexico’s National System of Art Creators (2022–2025) and serves as a professor and researcher at the Autonomous University of Mexico City.
