Open to public: Friday December 1st
The intersection of symbolic expressions and contemporary migration issues has been the meeting ground for BIENALSUR and Together Apart since 2017. These initiatives challenge unidirectional thinking and introduce a decolonial critique through the lens of human mobility. Based in Cúcuta, Colombia, the main city on the Colombian-Venezuelan border, this project serves not only as a permanent observatory but also as a central hub for dialogue that enriches the nature and identity of the city and the region. Both initiatives are actively engaged in the global map of cultural and knowledge transactions, contributing to discussions on the dynamics between the center and the periphery.
Together Apart focuses on reinforcing citizenship, integration, and the conditions for peace within a territory marked by intersecting dynamics of armed conflict, migratory waves, and forced displacement. Throughout the successive editions of BIENALSUR, this project has organized three meetings on the Colombian-Venezuelan border (in 2017, 2019, and 2021), mobilizing over 25,000 people and uniting 120 artists and thinkers from 40 different nationalities. As a result, it has solidified its position as a crucial space for border reflection and contemporary artistic practices.
In this exhibition, the chronicle of the Colombian-Venezuelan border, amid contemporary geopolitical tensions, is interwoven with a global perspective that explores borders and the migratory experience from various angles: models of citizenship, cartography, interculturality, nation-state boundaries, popular culture, decolonialism, racism, resistance, gender, and sexuality, among others. This curatorial narrative aims to provide a distinctive and articulate exploration of the dynamics of borders and human mobility in the contemporary world.
The convergence of ideas and a shared experience have prompted us to traverse borders and present exhibitions crafted to unite the conditions of migration, the convergence of identities, and the formation of an "us" between the "others."
Diana Wechsler, Alex Brahim, Benedetta Casini
