"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
Graffiti near the Buffer zone in Lefkosia, Cyprus
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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 Palestine and Israel, Cyprus and Turkey, India and Pakistan, and 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.
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Each borderworks project features a different slate of collaborators, and looks and feels completely different. The unifying factor is that each project questions or disrupts borders in some way. Our major Borderworks collaborations thus far include:
Janam Residency, Fall 2023
Borderworks @ Bard College, Fall 2022 -
The 2023 Janam Exchange was made possible with support from the Venturous Theatre Fund of the Tides Foundation, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and NYSCA.
The 2022 Borderworks project was made possible through a residency with the Fisher Center at Bard College.
To get in touch about a potential Borderworks collaboration, email us!