Press Press: Sanctuary is on the Horizon

Sanctuary is on the Horizon expands on Sanctuary Manifesto, a collaborative project of the publishing initiative Press Press. Created with immigrants and immigrant-adjacent people through workshops in Baltimore, New York City, and Chicago, the manifesto highlights various visions of sanctuary. It was produced as part of Press Press’s 2018 publication Sentiments: Expressions of Cultural Passage, a compilation of conversations, artist projects, and writings that explore various intersections of immigrant identities and the multiple and complicated facets of immigrant experiences.

The manifesto emerged amid the ongoing targeting of immigrant communities and the violation of their human rights under the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy, which led to the separation of thousands of children from their families and the inhumane treatment of immigrants held in detention centers, and in the midst of a global refugee crisis, mass deportations, and pervasive institutional misconduct. In this context, the notion of “sanctuary” may be filtered through experiences of violence, discomfort, and compromise. Guided by three central questions—What is sanctuary? How can sanctuary be created? How can sanctuary be protected?—the manifesto explores the many nuanced meanings of the term and asks viewers to consider if and how sanctuary has manifested in their own lives.

Press Press (based in Baltimore, Maryland, and Los Angeles, California) is a publishing initiative that aims to shift and deepen the understanding of voices, identities, and narratives that have been suppressed or misrepresented by the mainstream. Press Press was founded by Kimi Hanauer in 2014 and is produced in collaboration with Valentina Cabezas, Bomin Jeon, and Bilphena Yahwon, as well as a broad community of family and friends who participate in various aspects of the project. This installation is associated with the group exhibition Bookworks and part of Tufts University Art Galleries’ series Artist Response, an ongoing exhibition initiative that puts historical and contemporary artists’ projects in dialogue with social crises.