This essay will reflect on the work of Ursula Biemann and Alighiero Boetti. Each artist shows a different perspective on borders, both literal and metaphorical. Both Biemann and Boetti prove in their own ways and with their own mediums of choice that borders are always changing. They have great insight into how these borders are evolving and how humankind is responsible for the never-ending shift of these imaginary lines.
Ursula Biemann is a Swiss born artist who focuses her work on migration, mobility, technology and gender. She is also a theorist and curator. Her work, for the most part, consists of video projects and books.
In 2008 Biemann produced a video essay called “X-Mission”. This video essay is a look at Palestinian refugee camps and their state of being exempt from jurisdiction. In a clip from X-Mission found through Biemann’s website, Susan Akram – a lawyer from the Boston School of Law explains that the refugees in the camps have no access to international intervention or access to the international court of justice. They have no voice and therefore no way to fix this problem. It’s an interesting look at a border that I have yet to explore. These refugee camps are a result of all the displaced Palestinians whose homes and lives were destroyed during the Arab-Israeli War in 1948. There are 59 known camps where refugees can reside located in Lebanon, West Bank, Syria and Jordan with a now estimated 5 million refugees. Biemann shows the viewer that these camps are spaces that have internationally been “exceptions within the exception”. Some of these camps have been around for so long and have become so heavily populated that there is no telling the difference between them and the surrounding area. Starting out with tents, these camps have turned into urban spaces. It’s interesting to see how borders in this situation are completely invisible in one sense, but in another borders totally 
and completely dictate these refugees’ way of life. They have become invisible over time, as the refugees in the camp have resided there for so long, and with generations growing up in them and not knowing what their homeland is even like, this place has become their new home. The camp has grown into its surrounding area making it identical and unnoticeably different. In this visual sense the border has disappeared. However, this border is still very much present. It does not matter whether it is visible or not. The refugees are to stay only in the camps. Though some have ventured out to live amongst the citizens of the camps host nation, the refugees can only be under the protection and care of the camp if they are in them. This situation can be related to what Hamid Naficy says about accented cinemas, more specifically those of diaspora, which is what is happening inside of these refugee camps. The video, in its entirety, could not be found but from stills, episode selections and reviews it is still clear to see that it fits under the category of Accented Cinema in the realms of content and aesthetic. Her film shows interviews with camp refugees, scenes of chaos and destruction, the day-to-day lives of a refugee and the struggles they face. With a mixture of text in the video, some minor color affects and layering of videos cause this film to be more abstract than a typical documentary. Biemann uses these color changes and live type to enhance her narration and bring an intriguing visual aesthetic to the viewers generating attention. I think this answers Alex Rotas’ question if refugee art is possible - Yes, it is. [1]
But not only is this a way of creating “video art” but it is essentially and glorified slide show and informational essay. The essay has been written and then brought to life through Biemann’s use of layers and colors and sound and type. Her choice of medium is video art because she has so much information to convey, she has done so much research and traveling that displaying her findings any other way would not be adequate. Ursula Biemann uses video art and her method of enhanced essays, essentially, to show how the Palestinian refugees are not living in the borders of a country, but rather living ON the border. ON top of the border, metaphorically, where they have been stuck for so long that their communities are becoming integrated so much into the surrounding areas that they are indistinguishable. They’re indistinguishable except for the walls that separate them. Being stuck on top of a border, they have no true home.
Though Ursula Biemann and Alighiero Boetti use such different mediums to express themselves, they are nonetheless both still talking about borders and our current era of globalization. They both seem to prove that borders are always changing, whether that means nations of people being displaced like Ursula Biemann or showing how overtime the actual lines on our maps are in need of maintenance as they’ve changed on account of shifting power.
Alighiero Boetti was an Italian born artist who became famous for his over 20 yearlong series of maps of the world called “Mappa”.
Boetti’s “Mappa” series lasted from 1971 to 1994. His material of choice was embroidered tapestry. Boetti decided to use something inexpensive, something that could be mass reproduced. He chose tapestry in an effort to blur the distinction between art and life, which would in turn aid in his quest to spread his work as much as possible. “Mappa” is an embroidered tapestry of a map of the world. All of the countries are represented by their boundaries filled with its flag. Boetti has said that he considers this piece to be a collaboration between himself and the artisans who actually made them who were from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"For me the work of the embroidered Mappa is the maximum of beauty. For that work I did nothing, chose nothing, in the sense that: the world is made as it is, not as I designed it, the flags are those that exist, and I did not design them; in short I did absolutely nothing; when the basic idea, the concept, emerges everything else requires no choosing." Alighiero e Boetti, 1974[2]
Boetti, in a sense, was the architect of this project, and merely got the ball rolling for what would end up being the final decision of the artisans who actually physically made the maps. They could even choose the colors of the maps. And because of the long time frame that this series spanned, there are geopolitical changes the maps embrace: The dispersion of the Soviet Union, the reunification of Germany, and the never ending shift of border control in the Middle East. There are countries that aren’t even on the map like Ukraine and Belarus, because they didn’t even exist at the time. Others were not allowed to be shown as countries like Israel on account of the Taliban.
Niru Ratnum also very briefly comments on the controversy over the individual authorship of the woven maps of the world of Boetti, as he was merely the designer and left the rest of the work up to others. But looking at this idea as a whole, I believe he truly is the artist as this, from the beginning was his intent and purpose. He intended for this project to be mass-produced and he meant for it to straddle the ideas of high art and craft. Mappa, if continued could be an interesting series to see the never-ending evolution of our world maps.
Ursula Biemann and Alighiero Boetti have displayed in two very different mediums the physical and conceptual ideas of the constant evolution of borders. From regional to global, these artists have given in-depth looks at how the world around us is constantly changing.
WORK CITED:
“X-Mission". Dir.Ursula Briemann. Perf. Susan Akram, Bilal Khabeiz, Samar Kanafani, Ismaël Sheikh Hassan, Oroub elAbed, Beshara Doumani. 2008. Format: MPEG4. Argos Video Library, Brussels. Distribution Year Unknown.
Boetti, Alighiero. Mappa del Mondo. 1989. Museum of modern Art in New York.
Networked cultures: parallel architectures and the politics of space. Eds. Peter Mörtenböck and Helge Mooshammer. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers; New York : D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, 2008.
Biemann, Ursula . "X-MISSION 2008." geobodies. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar 2010.
Vertrocq, M. E. “Rules of the game [exhibitions at Gagosian Gallery and Sperone Westwater Gallery, New York City].” Art in America v. 89 no. 7 (July 2001) p. 86-93, 113.
Sammlung, Goetz. Arte povera from the Goetz Collection. München: Sammlung Goetz, 2001.
card design inspired by the work of scott hansen and the rest of the iso50 gang. not set, just experimental for now...
