Oglala Oyate – Sister City for a Better Future is a large-scale projection onto the side of the UFCW Local 5 building, near the intersection of San Carlos and S. 1st Street, during evening hours September 16-19, 2010.
The work’s concept grew out of Rigo 23’s interest in the plaque located in City Hall Plaza that marks the distances to San Jose’s seven sister cities: Okayama, Japan; San Jose, Costa Rica; Veracruz, Mexico; Tainan, Taiwan; Dublin, Ireland; Pune, India; and Ekaterinburg, Russia.
Rigo 23’s work proposes an eighth sister city, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation (Oglala Oyate, in Lakota) located in the southwest corner of South Dakota. Given that a Sister City is defined as an official City relationship established to develop long-term civic linkages, promote cultural understanding, and stimulate economic development, Rigo 23’s work draws attention to the linkages that are needed between local citizens and the surviving members of the many Native American Nations existing within our country’s borders.
Commissioned by ZER01 and presented with support from the James Irvine Foundation.