mental border control

Mental Border Control investigates the new frontier of emerging mental borders

The Mental border Control is an artistic research project to visualize the mental borders in Cucuta. This border town is overrun by the exodus of refugees coming from Venezuela. Together with a team of researchers we roamed the city for 5 weeks to detect mental border stories. To understand the variety of mental borders between two countries we looked into everything that crawls, walks or flies over the border. Next to people, there are animals and things crossing the border on daily basis. How does the border affect them and how do they adapt? The end result was a group picture with all communities participating in the research at the Christo Rey monument in the city center. This place is considered a mental border it self, since it is known as a no go area.

Mental Border Control was part of the JUNTOS APARTE and BIENALSUR in Cúcuta (Colombia/ Venezuela border). The aim was to connect the local community with this contemporary art event.

Castillo, Natalia. Smets, Melle.

[Documentary tape].

Colombia: BIENALSUR - 16 Salones Regionales de Artistas. 2017.

[Video file] Available at this: link