Felipe Romero Beltrán: Dialect

Foam presents Felipe Romero Beltrán’s solo exhibition Dialect. The exhibition captures the journey of a group of young Moroccan men after their arrival from a dangerous journey crossing the sea to Spain. Through his work, Romero Beltrán sheds light on issues such as alienation and social inequity of migrants in today’s society.

Born in Colombia, Romero Beltrán often focuses in his practice on societal issues where he follows his subjects for several years. For Dialect he documented the lives of these young adults for three years –the period it takes to go through the legal process of obtaining citizenship. After a perilous journey where they have crossed the Strait of Gibraltar; the maritime border between Morocco and Spain, these young men settled in Seville. While their legal status is being reviewed, these young men find themselves in a void: estranged from the familiarity of their home country and separated from a new society they can’t take part in. Even when they manage to step out of the legal vacuum, they remain ‘the others’ , experiencing a sense of alienation in this newly adopted country.