Vault Gallerie, other Pilsen organizations present instillation on border crisis

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Several organizations from the Pilsen community have collaborated on Project Mariposa, a week-long art installation that brings attention to the Border Crisis and how family separations at the border has affected families in the U.S.

With the help of local Chicago influencers bringing attention to the Border Crisis, Vault Gallerie, Healthy Hood Chicago and Right 2 Family hope to encourage change in policies regarding the issue.

"Now this is not just a gallery here, we show art work and we work with many artist but we really work hard as a collective to think of creative ways for our community to gain awareness," said Delilah Martinez of Vault Gallerie.

Six local influencers, including Tanya Lozano of Healthy Hood Chicago, will spend 24 hours in a cage built by teens from the community. The installation includes a cot and a tin foil blanket to with spectators a glimpse of how folks in detention centers live.

"There is no current protection for these families so that is what our issue is. It's not so much a path to citizenship but a freedom of the incarceration of fear and the physical incarceration of our people that that we are demanding right now with this project," said Lozano.

Lozano said most of the volunteers and artists involved with the installation have some kind of connection to the Border Crisis.

"Since my father actually got deported when I was born and he didn't come back until I was three so I got a tie to that," said Sebastian Barrera, a Pilsen resident who helped built the installation.

Lozano shared that many families of the Pilsen community share a similar story to Barrera's. She said she hopes the installation inspires change.

The organizations said they plan on traveling to Washington, D.C in September to hand the current administration letters from the families impacted by the crisis.