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One of the topics that in the last months is inflaming the public debate, is the construction of the controversial wall between the United States and Mexico. In the US the debate reached one of its peaks last month, when President Trump shut down the government for 36 consecutive day: the longest period ever. Now he is threatening of shutting down the government again if an agreement over a wall, or what he calls a 'physical barrier', is not reached before February 15th, 2019.
But why a wall? Is it really the best mean to achieve border security?
To answer these question, we decided to start 'Walls: Canvas for the Future', a new series of articles that explore how international artists interprets the theme of the wall in their artworks.
What we discovered is that a wall is never only a physical barrier that divides two lands and its peoples, but rather it is the physical expression of a deeper division, that found its roots in the desire for power.
Besik Maziashvili, is a Georgian artist based in Germany, whose artistic career explores his Georgian background and his relationship with space. One of his last projects, is '65 Degrees', an installation through which he sheds light on the ongoing, but not much known, Russian occupation in Georgia.
In 2008, Russia suddenly declared that it would have no longer recognized the provisions of the Declaration of the CIS Council, the organization formed by countries born after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The declaration, signed in 1996, recognized that Abkhazia and Ossetia, two separatist regions, were part of the Republic of Georgia. The withdrawal reawaken the separatists' movements, and when the Georgian forces acted to maintain peace in the regions, Russia entered Georgian territory in defence of the minority, starting an ongoing occupation of Georgian territory. Russia employed the same strategy to occupy Crimea in 2014.
In an immersive installation outside Berlin in 2018, Maziashvili drew a parallel between the Georgian occupation and the Berlin Wall, and in particular between the two borders.
He took some real segments of the Berlin Wall, all decorated by original graffiti, and disposed them in order to create what resembles a forest of concretes through which the spectator can walk through. In front of them, he collocated a tall mirror in which the spectators can reflect themselves fully immersed in the surreal scenario while working toward it.
But once arrived there, the artist asks the spectators to change their perspective and to turn behind the mirror. There, they discover that the mirror is supported, and supports, in a precarious equilibrium, a green signpost, forming a 65 degree angle. The signpost, says 'state border' and has been dangerously stolen along the border of occupied territories in south Ossetia by the artist himself. However, from this side, the perspective of the viewer completely changes: the segments of wall, that before were portraying a grisly shadow and a grey atmosphere, now look like a disaggregated mass.
Indeed, as explained by the artist himself , "[...], the essence of 65 Degrees [is that] walls will fall and families will reunite". Borders can be created, or imposed on people, but eventually they will be transformed.
An installation that speaks a thousand words.
D.S.
Credits Cover Picture: Besik Maziashvili