Fat Ballerinas

border
the line that separates one country, state, province, etc., from another
the frontier of civilization
brink; verge
an outer part or edge

this week i planned my first “meetup” event. we went to the Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona (CCCB), to see an exhibition called Fronteres (Borders). the exhibition was designed as a journey through passage ways representing the path through different worlds…”in a movement that brings together history and geopolitics, the gaze of photographers and eye-witnesses, sounds and maps, general reflections and field studies. a reflection on the concept of the border, its types and a review of some of today’s geopolitical borders (the boundaries of Europe, US-Mexico, Israel-Palestine, North Korea-South Korea, Kashmir, Miami-Havana, the case of Melilla (Spain/Morocco)). quote from the CCCB website

it was an interesting show and well laid out, i was even amazed to receive an english brochure that didn’t suck. usually the english translations are almost non-existent or at the best a small paragraph that the editor was confident that they could write in english. i learned a lot. of course after living in Arizona i was fully aware of the conflict of people crossing the US/Mexico border, but i did not know that Spain still had land on the the continent of Africa, a town called “Melilla” that is a completely enclosed by fences because it is a part of Spain that is in Morocco. or what some illegal immigrants go through to go from Africa to Europe. or how maritime borders make the ocean look like a jig saw puzzle.

the meetup group included myself, super-jason, anna (our fearless leader), rosa, jose, melania, and marije. besides myself, most of the group had a good grasp of Castellano and so when we bumped into a tour group being led by a journalist, all aboard! i stayed behind and just slowly read through the 6 pages of translations. i found out that i missed some good personal commentary by the journalist, but i wouldn’t have understood even if i had kept up with the group. i got a good translation afterwards from Melania and Rosa, and we had a wonderful roundtable discussion on our viewpoints. i was surprised to find that a lot of Europeans are not aware that US citizens cannot travel to Cuba (well not easily and definitely not legally)

Travel Journal of an Illegal Immigrant

Kashmir, the Forgotten Paradise

Rromano Than, Exiles & Refuges

Exile - OceanMaleconDrive: Transatlantic Street
Miami’s Ocean Drive & Cuba’s Malecon

all in all it was a successful experience. I met new people from Barcelona and Netherlands, saw some beautiful photography, and stopped to think about the world.

Crossing borders helps us to see and understand. Looking beyond means taking risks of venturing on to a foreign continent, of facing up to a different horizon, of being surprised by new faces and finding oneself without a home, without identity or, at least, implicated. A mirror effect. What will we know a the journey’s end, once we have crossed the final boundary? quote from the Borders pamphlet

all pictures shown are my own pictures of the photos in the exhibition. they didn’t stop me or tell me not to do it, so….