Hello, my name is Christine Marque! I am a local artist and filmmaker in Cincinnati, OH, and I am trying to use my talents and skills to create a human trafficking prevention tool. I am doing this because I didn’t know about human trafficking until I was 14 years old. I was writing a social justice paper for school, and I saw the words “Human Trafficking”, and didn’t understand what it meant. After diving deeper, I found that being a 14-year-old female in Ohio made me the most at-risk age to be sex trafficked. Ever since then, I’ve looked for an opportunity to contribute to the fight against human trafficking. Motel X has been a 3-year journey for me, and I look forward to seeing it’s completion!
Motel X is a multi-media art installation bringing awareness and prevention to Human Trafficking within the greater Cincinnati area. Motel X is premiering on January 11th, 2020, and continuing through April 4, 2020, at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. The goal is to create an exhibit that will invoke an empathetic link to understanding human trafficking, allow people to fight against this atrocity, as well as give the survivors a platform to share their art, story, and/or knowledge.
Motel X is unlike anything created to bring a larger awareness to Human Trafficking. Visitors will enter a motel and feel like they are in a strangely familiar world. The motel is designed to feel like a metaphorical journey. In the beginning, the visitor starts on the “outside” and as they go deeper in you learn about the struggles of labor trafficking and sex trafficking. The visitor will interact with the installation via clues and QR codes found throughout the motel. The vortex tunnel will be the path to “Hope”.This is meant to symbolize how difficult it is to escape. The Hope Room will be a comfortable and safe space to reflect on the exhibit, as well as a place for survivors to display their artwork, perform, and speak. Motel X will create an experience for touch, sight, sound, and smell to create an unforgettable experience for anyone who enters.
Human trafficking happens here. In 2018, Ohio was ranked the 5th highest state with known human trafficking cases. Cincinnati sits on one of the worst highways for trafficking; Interstate 75. I-75 runs north to south which makes it easier for traffickers to transport their victims. But even inside the 275 belt loop, where human smuggling isn’t as prevalent, trafficking happens. The issue is that people aren’t aware of the practical knowledge that could help prevent and possibly help save the victims. Motel X is separating fact from fiction when it involves sex trafficking stereotypes and labor trafficking stereotypes.
We are currently fundraising and building Motel X through altering furniture and building sets to create this experience. We will install Motel X at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center on January 2nd – 10th.
We need help. Motel X is a huge endeavor and we are so close to being fully funded! Our total budget is $32,000 and we have managed to raise $22,000. We are actively fundraising, but we just need a little bit more to make it to our goal. Any money donated goes directly to building the project. Our goal is to create an experience so unique and interesting that visitors can learn about human trafficking in a safe environment and help prevent this from happening within their own families and communities.
Thank you for reading and being interested in the project!
It will be a fairly unique experience to create, and we are constantly working towards that every day. We have to be creative about where and how we spend money with a tight budget. This Kickstarter will help free up resources we have on hold.
We have 10 days to construct Motel X within the Freedom Center in January, which is a challenge itself. We are actively working on gathering volunteer groups to help.