Introduction
Borders
Borders shape where we can live, where we belong or where we remain foreign, and what rights and services we have access to even if we live far from an actual border. To some, borders give a sense of security; for others they are a barrier to safety. Borders and Borderlands are also a ‘contact zone’, or ‘third space’ in between other entities in which new ideas and identities can emerge.
Although same borders are based on natural barriers, borders are man-made and their location as well as their meaning shifts over time. Even after their political disappearance, many former borders still live on as “phantom borders” in social structures and identities.
While borders are quintessential to the development of nations, the processes that have invented, maintained and given meaning to borders were often processes that transcend these were same borders.
Through the history of the building you entered in Thurnau, artefacts relating to the making of borders from Thurnau, Germany, Europe, and the World, as well as personal recollections curated by students having crossed many borders to study in Bayreuth, this exhibition invites you to explore the entangled history of borders, compare and contrast borderland experiences in different parts of the world and reflect on the role of borders in shaping ideas of heritage and belonging, and co-create the exhibition through your own border histories and experiences.
Darkness, Light and the Great Gray
The history and present of borders are marked by Darkness, Light, and the Great Gray area in between; transforming ideas and concepts about Borders from global history into exhibits and texts required great leaps, unfair selections, and great reductions on our part. To begin the process of selection and to sharpen our focus we started with an exercise in abstractive thinking: we stripped the word ‘border’ from its conceptual connotations, we found synonyms, and discussed its different and often contradictive applications in different contexts and languages.
Our impressions from these discussions, we placed in room number Two, the dark room. It is a place where unprocessed ideas live, interspersed with collective and individual memories, sudden illuminations, related objects, and vaguely related creative responses.
Our ideas, knowledge, and experiences we placed in room number three, a room full of Light, where everything appears crystal clear, and order is created out of knowledge and experience.
In between the two contrasting spaces we placed the Great Gray area: where weak Light meets the shadow of Darkness. Where clarity and nuance of historical analysis meet disrupted chronologies in the scenography. Order is re-ordered by disorder: our Entrance to the Border.
Enjoy responsibly.
