ON THE OVERFLOW FORMS OF THE COLORADO RIVER DELTA
LOS DESBORDAMIENTOS EN EL DELTA DEL RÍO COLORADO
Cerro Prieto volcano. 35mm photograph taken in Cerro Prieto Geothermal Power Station CFE in 2024.
On the Overflow Forms of the Colorado River Delta is an ongoing research and exhibition project that addresses the geology of the Delta and hydrogeological memories in Mexicali. It seeks to recognize and trace the consequences of systemic extractivism under a geological reading: from the time-space scales, loss of geological phenomena, the domination and control over water and energy, and how it interacts with present ecologies in the Lower Colorado River region.
The reflection arose from the known overflow forms of the Colorado River: Volcano Lake, the Cerro Prieto extinct volcano, and the Cerro Prieto Geothermal Power Plant, and the Salton Sea region. “On Overflows Forms of the Colorado River Delta” is part of Archivo Familiar del Río Colorado—a collaborative project and growing community archive that seeks to gather, give visibility, and rewrite the intimate stories of our human-river relationship, primarily but not exclusively in the Delta region. This curatorial project aims to present a series of works developed by local artists that connect with deep listening, photography, moving images, and archival materials.
As part of the curatorial process for this first exhibition, “On the Overflows” has taken form into a series of sound explorations and walks focused on geothermal phenomena like geysers, and mud volcanoes and visits with artists to the Geothermal Power Plants in Imperial Valley, CA, and Mexicali. This exhibition and collective artistic research has been developed with Mexicali-based artists Karina Villalobos, Jessica Sevilla, Hugo Fermé, Pastizal Zamudio, Mayté Miranda, and California-based Cynthia Hopper.