Immigrants Occupy is a project that pays tribute to OWS and, more specifically, to the Immigrant Occupy March that took place on December 18th, 2011 in NYC. Images of protesters standing on platforms and holding signs are directly printed on the Moleskine pages. Thus they become living monuments of the movement.
There are two stories running along the top and the bottom of the book:
The first describes my personal experience as an immigrant in the U.S. Advised NOT to attend a peaceful demonstration in 2007 because of a possible deportation related to my status (despite the fact that I was a legal immigrant at the time) I gave in. Years later I did participate in a major demonstration, the Immigrant Occupy March, along with many other immigrants. This became the subject of my second story.
In the work, the pages are detached from the body of the book and formed into little tents, connected in a long chain, suggesting a camp or a village. Thus the book is transformed, charged with a new meaning that expands on its nomadic nature and communicates the ideology of the OWS movement: equality, solidarity and a strong believe in a better future.
(Sofia, Bulgaria, 1974) Lives and works in New York
Daniela Kostova is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice employs video, performance, photography and installation. Her work addresses issues of geography and cultural representation, the production and crossing of socio-cultural borders, and the uneasy process of translation and communication. Daniela curently lives in NYC and works as Exhibition Director of BAA and Director of Curatorial Projects at Radiator Gallery, NY.
