This Land Is Your Land, an installation by Chilean artist Iván Navarro (b. 1972), points to connections between two countries–Chile and the United States. The work takes its title from a folk song by American musician Woody Guthrie that was a source of inspiration for Chilean folk singers banned in Chile under the violent dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who came to power through a CIA-supported coup. Navarro’s work underscores America’s role in fomenting unrest in Chile, and the waves of migration that resulted afterward.

Here, Navarro invokes the iconic form of water towers, closely associated with the skyline of New York City, a city where immigrants from around the world gather in search of a better life. Guthrie’s 1940 song criticized the privatization of resources in the United States that he believed all should have access to, including water. Notably absent from Guthrie’s song is reference to Indigenous Nations' right to this land and critical role in protecting clean water. Ultimately, Navarro’s installation raises questions about how nations linked by colonial histories might reshape their futures.

Iván Navarro (b. 1972) works are included in numerous collections including Fonds National d’Art Contemporain Paris, LVMH Collection, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Inhotim, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea (MMCA), and the Zabludowicz Collection.

Courtesy of the artist and Templon, Paris – Brussels.

This exhibition is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.