NADA New York 2025

For Americas Society’s Flag Series, nibia pastrana santiago creates a new version of “YOUR ISLAND HERE” (2019). The flag displays the phrase “your island here,” where the Y in “you” is obscured by the letter X, marking a place, that of the people. “YOU” becomes “OUR,” for the plural, para y de la gente (for and of the people). Often, islands are prone to outsider real estate speculation. When properties are for sale, it is common usage language that addresses the buyer in the second person; for instance, “your dream beach house.” pastrana santiago subverts this paradigm by reclaiming the local (whether it be an island or Park Avenue and 68th Street) for the collective (“our island”). Its installation evokes a sense of place, of island-ness, in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, an island itself.