Lovers for Mutual Aid
A Valentine’s Day gathering which was held during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis, centered on love as a form of resistance. Projection mapping, shared food, and collaborative visuals transformed a residential space into a site of care, presence, and collective participation.
Methods
This video documents the projection mapping installation created for Lovers for Mutual Aid. The exterior of the house becomes a shifting surface for collaborative visuals, combining motion, light, and architecture to create a shared viewing space.
The footage captures how the projections interacted with the environment and how people moved through and gathered around the space over the course of the evening. Projection also functioned as a tool for access, allowing collaborators to participate remotely and extending the space beyond its physical location.
The projections include work by Ashley Bautista, whose pieces draw from personal and cultural symbolism. Her imagery includes a figure holding marigolds, referencing their role in guiding spirits during Día de los Muertos, and a handwritten journal entry reflecting on her experience during ongoing immigration enforcement in Minneapolis. Her work brings themes of grief, memory, and cultural continuity into the projection.