Borderworks

"The border is not just a wall or a line on a map. It’s a power structure, a system of control. The border is everywhere that people live in fear of deportation, everywhere migrants are denied the rights accorded citizens, everywhere human beings are segregated into included and excluded...The border does not divide one world from another. There is only one world, and the border is tearing it apart.” - No Wall They Can Build (Anonymous)

“‘Borderwork’ is the name given to the ways in which ordinary people can make and unmake borders. Borderwork is no longer only the business of nation-states, it is also the business of citizens (and indeed non-citizens).” - Christopher Rumford

Borderworks is a major new initiative of Radical Evolution, serving as an umbrella for multiple projects. With each engagement of Borderworks, we seek to dig into some big questions about national borders.  From the US/Mexico border to conflicts in Israel and Palestine, Cyprus and Turkey, India and Pakistan, and presently Russia and Ukraine, these invisible lines, and the people who make them, control our world. Borders often get taken for granted, as part of the modern-day human experience. But what if we didn’t take borders as a given? What if we instead identified borders as a system of control and oppression, and worked together to address that?

Is it possible to live in a world with no borders? If so, how? And how can we, as theatremakers, be a part of that conversation?

Rather than a singular artistic project, Borderworks is a series of engagements with different communities to generate creative interventions in borders, physically, politically and/or economically, and/or by any means deemed effective. Inspired by the above definition of Borderworks, we recognize that people across the world who are impacted by borders have a unique perspective and expertise to share, and we seek to work with interested groups to artistically manifest these ideas.

To get in touch about a potential Borderworks collaboration, email us!

Borderworks projects thus far (click below for more info):

Janam Residency
Borderworks @ Bard