Border Ghosts:Artistic Practices and Ghostly Memories in Border Necropolitics

Abstract

This paper examines, through the artistic project Border Ghosts, how erased bodies and invisible existences of migrants on the Mexico–United States border can be artistically brought back. Drawing on Avery Gordon’s notion of haunting, Achille Mbembe’s necropolitics, and Adriana Estevéz’s analysis of necropolitical devices in Mexico, it focuses on “ghostly manifestations” that persist beyond official records. The case studies show that, even under extreme conditions of precariousness and violence, migrants strive to represent themselves through storytelling. By using techniques such as 3D scanning and printing, the project enables a symbolic visualization imbued with corporeality, ethically responding to these presences. Photography, video, and object scanning complement each other in creating an environment that welcomes erased voices and traces as affective memory. Rather than offering a definitive answer to border necropolitics, the proposal seeks to keep alive the question of how art can engage with silenced voices, thus remaining open to new forms of response.