Ricardo Bennett-Guzmán

Ricardo is the second artist we met on this project, as he and Xavier are close friends. Born and raised Ciudad Juárez, he arrived in the Twin Cities in 2011, where he’s been contributing in a multitude of capacities ever since. Though now living away from Juárez, he keeps close ties to folks back home, and each artist we met with in Juárez had loving memories of Ricardo to share with us. Ricardo served as a pivotal mentor on this project, and the questions he raised throughout the process really shaped our experience in important ways.

Ricardo is an experimental media artist, photographer, filmmaker, and choreographer. No matter where Ricardo is making art — whether that be Minnesota, Scotland, or México — questions about human rights, movement, the body, space, and identity dominate his work. His artistic and personal commitment to social justice comes from his upbringing in Juárez, and this personal history drives his work.

For more on Ricardo’s projects past and present, check out his website. You can also view his most recent work on display at Saint John’s University, MN, in the exhibition Another Country, which runs from March 12, 2018 to June 3, 2018 at the Alice R. Rogers and Target Gallery.

Photo credit for featured image: Andrew Swisher for the University of Minnesota