Borderlands is an arts initiative that creates participatory experiences to bring people from segregated communities together.
The Project originated in the 'borderlands' of the Cape South Peninsula, South Africa, using the public spaces that separate communities as locations for art that unites. Between 2017 and 2020 we crafted many unique, inclusive artistic experiences that brought people of all ages into contact with each other and with nature.
We occupied the borderlands with art.
BORDER WALKS | BORDER YOUTH | BORDER ACTIONS
BORDER WALKS | Walking explorations led by guests with diverse perspectives in remarkable borderland locations
BORDER YOUTH | Workshops, eco-arts camps and excursions that connect youth with each other, art & nature
BORDER ACTIONS | Festivals, pop-up performances and interventions in the borderlands - exercising our right to creatively occupy public space
BORDER YOUTH | Workshops, eco-arts camps and excursions that connect youth with each other, art & nature
BORDER ACTIONS | Festivals, pop-up performances and interventions in the borderlands - exercising our right to creatively occupy public space
CREATING ENCOUNTERS THROUGH ART
Borderlands is a project that uses the arts to create encounters between segregated communities.
Occupying the borderlands - the uninhabited spaces between our communities - we use art to bring people together. We put into practice innovative methods of engagement that get people to connect, reflect and spend time together. It is a public arts model that sees uninhabited borderlands as spaces of potential, were we can practice new ways of being together as a society.
Segregation is still a fact of South African life.
It impacts upon where we live, work, play, go to school, who we see as part of our communities and what opportunities we have to prosper.
And it’s not something that is going to go away by itself.
Across South Africa, our cities and towns are defined by a legacy of spatial apartheid.
Communities are separated along racial and socio-economic lines. Inequality grows.
Equal and welcoming social spaces hardly exist.
So we have to make them.
Our model is born out of the locality of the Cape South, where many of the border zones are nature reserves.
It is a rapidly growing area characterized by extreme spatial apartheid and amazing nature. The area is peripheral, far from the city centre, but it is a microcosm of wider South Africa – a beautiful, vibrant place that struggles with inequality, wounds left by apartheid and lack of integration.
So we started here – using arts to make a difference in our shared home.
We craft challenging, experimental, participatory events that use performance, visual arts, music, dance, writing and conversation. We don't have audiences, we have participants. And we bring together diverse, conflicting perspectives in order to highlight the issues that matter to our communities - land use, water management, housing, safety, solidarity and sustainability.
There is space to remember the past, be in the present and create the future in the borderlands
Occupying the borderlands - the uninhabited spaces between our communities - we use art to bring people together. We put into practice innovative methods of engagement that get people to connect, reflect and spend time together. It is a public arts model that sees uninhabited borderlands as spaces of potential, were we can practice new ways of being together as a society.
Segregation is still a fact of South African life.
It impacts upon where we live, work, play, go to school, who we see as part of our communities and what opportunities we have to prosper.
And it’s not something that is going to go away by itself.
Across South Africa, our cities and towns are defined by a legacy of spatial apartheid.
Communities are separated along racial and socio-economic lines. Inequality grows.
Equal and welcoming social spaces hardly exist.
So we have to make them.
Our model is born out of the locality of the Cape South, where many of the border zones are nature reserves.
It is a rapidly growing area characterized by extreme spatial apartheid and amazing nature. The area is peripheral, far from the city centre, but it is a microcosm of wider South Africa – a beautiful, vibrant place that struggles with inequality, wounds left by apartheid and lack of integration.
So we started here – using arts to make a difference in our shared home.
We craft challenging, experimental, participatory events that use performance, visual arts, music, dance, writing and conversation. We don't have audiences, we have participants. And we bring together diverse, conflicting perspectives in order to highlight the issues that matter to our communities - land use, water management, housing, safety, solidarity and sustainability.
There is space to remember the past, be in the present and create the future in the borderlands
join us in the borderlands...
