Hostile Terrain 94 is a participatory exhibition created by the Undocumented Migration Project, a non-profit organization that focuses on the social process of immigration and raises awareness through research, education, and outreach.
The exhibit is composed of approximately 3,400 handwritten toe tags that represent migrants who have died trying to cross the Sonoran Desert from the mid-1990s to 2020. These tags are geolocated on a large wall map of the Arizona-Mexico border, showing the exact locations where human remains were found. The physical act of writing out the names and information for the dead invites participants to reflect, witness and stand in solidarity with those who have lost their lives in search of a better one. This exhibit is taking place at over 120 institutions across 6 continents with the intention to raise awareness about the humanitarian crisis at America’s southern border and to engage with communities around the world in conversations about migration.
The construction of HT94 is made possible by teams of volunteers from each hosting location, who participate in tag-filling workshops, where they write the details of the dead and then publicly place the tags on the map– in the exact location where each individual’s remains were found. Some tags also contain QR codes that link to content related to migrant stories.