Kimi Hanauer: Calling All Denizens

Calling All Denizens is a participatory research project that facilitates conversations, workshops, and programs that aim to cooperatively imagine the new political practice of denizenship as an alternative to the notion of citizenship. “Denizen,” derived from Latin deintus, literally means “from within”, but has historically been used in reference to foreign residents who are granted limited rights in the states in which they reside. Building on this historical meaning, Calling All Denizens partners with individuals and organizations to explore the notions of “from within” and “from without” as they pertain to the nuances of citizenship, sovereignty, migration, exile, and diaspora. In response to a history of race-based exclusion to citizenship and processes of identity-erasing assimilation in the United States, Calling All Denizens aims to give rise to a more compassionate, ethical, and genuine vision of a liberated society that holds its denizens dear.

The call for participation is on view here and as a large-scale public billboard on the exterior of SMFA. Audience members are invited to participate in the project by contributing their ideas to the notion of denizenship through instructions on the take-away. The conversations will be archived online and publicly available.

Kimi Hanauer is an artist and cultural organizer based in Los Angeles. She is the founding organizer of Press Press and editor of Sentiments: Expressions of Cultural Passage. Calling All Denizens gives new form to research on the history of immigration and naturalization policy in the United States that Hanuaer originally compiled as an editorial framework for Press Press’s Sentiments and Sanctuary Manifesto. These works are currently on view in the Remis Sculpture Court at Tufts University campus in Medford. This installation is associated with Tufts University Art Galleries’ series Artist Response, an ongoing exhibition initiative that puts historical and contemporary artists’ projects in dialogue with social crises.