The multidisciplinary exhibition “Between Borders and Roots,” held at the Museo Vivo del Muralismo in Mexico City, explores human mobility by portraying migrants and their stories as part of cultural wealth and diversity. The exhibition presents people on the move as agents of social change, rights-holders, and contributors to sustainable development, highlighting the social, cultural, and economic dimensions of migration.
Inaugurated on International Migrants Day, 18 December, the exhibition is an initiative of Mexico’s Ministry of Public Education (SEP) through its General Directorate for Educational Cooperation and Outreach, in collaboration with IOM, UNICEF, and UNESCO. It will remain open to the public until May 2026, offering visitors an extended opportunity to engage with the theme of human mobility.
The Jacobo and María Ángeles Workshop from Oaxaca contributed carved figures representing María, Jacobo, Ricardo, and Sabina aboard a canoe, symbolizing the tension between the desire to leave and the longing to stay, as well as the resilience of migrant families. This installation reflects the experiences of millions of Mexican families living in a “dispersed Mexico” and emphasizes the enduring cultural connections they carry with them.
The exhibition also features the contemporary mural Displacements by artist Alberto Castro Leñero, which engages with the historic brushstrokes of Siqueiros. Through dynamic figures and a network resembling maps and fractures, the mural invites reflection on transience and the continuous search for a new home. Complementing the visual art, UNESCO contributed unpublished photographs by Alejandro Flores, presented alongside IOM’s fieldwork images from Mexico in the documentary Stories in Motion.
Short documentary films such as Sak ta tsoj by Alan Ricardo Palma and Borders by Camila Alejandra Olivo Gámez and collaborators are also screened, providing narrative depth to the exhibition. The event was inaugurated by Graciela Báez Ricárdez of SEP, Gloria Angélica Falcón of the Museo Vivo del Muralismo, Dana Graber Ladek of IOM Mexico, and Astrid Hollander of UNICEF Mexico.
UNESCO Programme Coordinator Adolfo Rodríguez Guerrero emphasized the exhibition’s role in combining education and art to foster sensitivity to the human condition, challenge prejudices, and demonstrate how people on the move contribute to reducing inequalities and advancing sustainable development and peace.
