«What kind of dirt do you need?»
Da San Diego e Tijuana a Venezia: Border Art oltre i confini
abstract
Only one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1990, another border could be observed at the Aperto section of the Venice Biennale. It was the work Colón Colonizado – Tutto è Mio – ¿De Quién? by the Border Art Workshop/Tallér de Arte Fronterizo (BAW/TAF), a binational collective of artists from the San Diego-Tijuana border region. The project corresponds to the first landing of Border Art overseas, but also to the dissolution of the BAW/TAF. The work is therefore subject and conductor of the essay. Its site-specificity aspects are deepened in relationship to the Biennale’s exhibition context. The analysis of this case study will present the Venice Biennial as a key moment and a stage for the transformation of the border space from geographical-territorial to mental and conceptual.
Keywords: BAW/TAF • Space • Border • Site-specificity • Border Art