Two Sides of the Border, Reimagining the Mexico–United States Region Architecture Exhibition, Images
Two Sides of the Border Exhibition Berlin
A collective academic initiative led by Tatiana Bilbao, Mexico City in Berlin
19 Feb 2019
Two Sides of the Border Exhibition
A collective academic initiative led by Tatiana Bilbao, Mexico City
Exhibition: 16 March – 25 April 2019
Opening: Friday, 15 March 2019, 6.30pm
Place: Aedes Architecture Forum, Christinenstr. 18-19, 10119 Berlin
Opening Hours: Tue-Fri 11am-6.30pm, Sun-Mon 1-5pm
Special Opening Hours: Sat, 16 March 2019, 1-5pm
To redefine border regions as an integrated whole is a critical challenge for architectural, political, and cultural institutions today. The exhibition brings together research and design results of an academic initiative, launched by Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao in 2018.
Interdisciplinary architectural and urban concepts of 13 participating architecture studios from universities across Mexico and the United States are presented on the basis of drawings, pictures and models. The approaches explore numerous topics such as migration, housing or natural resources—with a focus on one common region rather than two nations.
In addition to a photo essay by Iwan Baan, new maps of Thomas Paturet highlight interesting spatial relationships of the Mexico–United States border which is characterized by a variety of cultural and economic similarities and a common history.
What if we stopped dividing the United States and Mexico into two separate nations, and instead studied their shared histories, cultures, and economies and acknowledged them as pieces of a single region? The current political climate exaggerates differences across the border, and at a moment when migration is at the forefront of political discourse and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is being renegotiated as the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), the exhibition investigates the urgency of shifting the narrative.
‘Two Sides of the Border’ is an exhibition in the form of an atlas, a book that selectively draws space and defines regions in order to produce a preferred image. The new atlas presents three perspectives: projective, objective, and subjective.
– the projective atlas displays work from the 13 studios’ examinations which took on interdisciplinary approaches to study and propose projects dealing with cross border issues: migration, farming labor in Ohio and Kansas, and remittance houses in Mexico to name a few.
– the objective atlas shows new maps by Thomas Paturet, capitalizing on the assumption that maps have the capacity to dissolve North American borders by emphasizing other geospatial relationships. These are displayed alongside historic maps presenting 400 years of shifting borders in the region, destabilizing the collective imagination of the border.
– the subjective atlas is a photo essay by the photographer Iwan Baan who traveled to each of the studio sites to capture their changing landscapes and architecture’s role in these regional relationships.
‘Two Sides of the Border’ aims to redefine the region and simultaneously is a collaborative project that redefines North American pedagogy. The academic initiative fluidly spans language, borders, institutions and nationalities—all based on the shared interest in developing a comprehensive and unified imagination of the region.
The exhibition is initiated and conceptualized by the Mexico City-based architect and educator Tatiana Bilbao and is designed and curated by Nile Greenberg, NILE, New York. It is made possible by the support of the Yale School of Architecture Gallery, where it was originally on view.
Further Information: Aedes Architecture Forum
Speaking at the Opening
Dr. h.c. Kristin Feireiss Aedes, Berlin
Rogelio Granguillhome Morfin Ambassador of Mexico, Berlin
Tatiana Bilbao Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, Mexico City
Symposium (in English)
Reimagining the Region
Within the ANCB programme Borders and Territories: Identity in Place
Date: Saturday, 16 March 2019, 1-4.30pm
Place: ANCB The Aedes Metropolitan Laboratory, Christinenstraße 18-19, 10119 Berlin
The symposium aims to examine new spatial, geopolitical and cultural possibilities related to nations and people on our globe. Concepts of dividing and connecting are vital to address the question what is or makes territories that are defined physically/politically, by culture and ways of thinking and by common interests such as economy.
What type of physical, infrastructural and political basis has to be established to meet the various ideas of home and “Heimat” of societies that are increasingly culturally diverse and socially divided? How can we use their potential? This includes the investigation of borders of different qualities – from physical divisions, “rurban” situations and political frontiers of countries and states to invisible boundaries between disciplines and social or cultural borders.
Reception and Welcome
Hans-Jügen Commerell ANCB The Aedes Metropolitan Laboratory, Berlin
Susana Garduño Mexican Cultural Institute Berlin
Davide Zampini CEMEX, Switzerland
Presentations
Tatiana Bilbao Architect, Mexico
Carlos Hagerman Filmmaker, Mexico
Raul Walch Artist, Germany
Panel Discussion
Moderator: Lukas Feireiss Director “Radical Cut-Up“ Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam/Berlin
Film Screening and Drinks
“Those Who Remain / Los que se quedan” by Carlos Hagerman and Juan Carlos Rulfo, Mexico, 2009, 96 min
Admission is free. Please register for the symposium at reply@ancb.de
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