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"Migration Is Beautiful"

  • A brightly colored poster, made by a hispanic artist, of a butterfly. On the butterfly's wings is a drawing of a profile on each side. Underneath the butterfly the poster reads,"Migration is Beautiful."

    LEFT Favianna Rodriguez, Migration Is Beautiful, 2018, digital image, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Julia D. Strong Endowment, 2020.38.3, © 2020 Favianna Rodriguez

Favianna Rodriguez, Migration Is Beautiful, 2018, digital image, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Julia D. Strong Endowment, 2020.38.3, © 2020 Favianna Rodriguez

Monarch butterflies migrate freely across the Americas in search of safer habitats. The human profile in each of the butterfly's wings highlights the courage and resiliency of people who, like the monarch butterfly, migrate across human-made political borders. This artwork symbolizes the right of all living beings to move freely, connecting movement across borders to the broader ebb and flow of the natural world.

Can you think of other ways the natural world challenges our human-made borders or political systems?

Click here for more information about the exhibition.

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Favianna Rodriguez, Migration is Beautiful (La migración es bella), 2018, imagen digital, Smithsonian American Art Museum. Obra adquirida por el museo a través del fondo Julia D. Strong, 2020.38.3, © 2020 Favianna Rodriguez

Las mariposas monarca migran libremente por las Américas en busca de hábitats más seguros. El perfil humano en cada una de las alas de la mariposa destaca el coraje y la resistencia de las personas que, como la mariposa monarca, migran y cruzan las fronteras políticas inventadas por el ser humano. Esta obra de arte simboliza el derecho de todos los seres vivos a moverse libremente, y vincula el movimiento en las fronteras con el ir y venir más expansivo que vemos en el mundo natural. 

¿Existen otras instancias en que el mundo natural se rebela contra los sistemas políticos o las fronteras que inventan los seres humanos?

Haz click aquí para más información acerca de la exhibición.