You will enter a room full of speakers and screens, but, if you close your eyes, you will feel as if you were in a jungle. This is what Roberto Romero Molina, a binational artist from our region, has created.

The visual and plastic artist has been showcasing his art for about 20 years and in his latest gallery, titled The Language of Things/El Lenguaje de las Cosas, Romero has used technology to his advantage.

In an interview with La Prensa San Diego, Romero spoke about why he mixed these two concepts in such a unique way.
“I work different concepts, but the experience is direct,” said Romero. “It’s a concept where we take the sounds and they fuse as port of the exhibit. It is a unique experience for the people who are present.”

“It is not something that I could describe with words,” Romero added.

Being part of a border region has helped Romero in his extensive career. Romero says that seeing the reactions from both cultures has shaped the way he views himself.

“Working on both sides of the border has taught me a lot of things because both cultures are so different. The way that people perceive art depending on their culture is very impressive,” Romero explained. “I have been able to view myself from outside of my culture and I have been able to experience what both sides of the border have to offer.”

The installation can be viewed at the Art Institute of San Diego and at the Centro Cultural Tijuana. Both displays have been open to the public and people from around the world have had the opportunity to experience it for themselves.

Gabriela, a tourist from Sweden, attended the exposition at the San Diego Art Institute. She visited every station and noticed a pattern.

“I liked it; it was very heavily focused on sound,” Gabriela said. “I would have rather been able to focus on one sound at a time, but I think they are all related. They were very heavily focused in delivering to the spectator that we can communicate with more senses.”

Our country has and will continue to experience drastic changes with immigration policies, and our border region has been no exception. Romero, who has travelled to both countries throughout his entire life, has used this as an inspiration and said that it has been a crucial part of his work.

Refusing to be an average artist, and incorporating interactive paintings and electronic sounds to his artwork, Romero has found a way to transmit his message in a peculiar manner and as a bilingual artist, he has experienced in firsthand the importance in teaching others that language can be experienced in different ways.

“Every situation that we go through affects in one way or another and that is what makes art be interpreted in so many different ways. As an artist I try to canalize what I feel in what I do. Using this platform to expose what I feel is a way that I can contribute to what I think is important,” Romero said.