Artist, curator, researcher Mehta Ali Akbar

Borderland(er)s: Counter-narrating histories of violence

Taiteellinen työ / siihen pohjautuva työ | Kolmivuotinen

With a 3-year grant awarded by the Kone Foundation, I want to create and exhibit Borderland(er)s – a constellation of artworks that narrate intimate and global histories of violence. These artworks initiate a creative response to our understanding of “borderization” – a process that causes reinforcement, reproduction and intensification of vulnerability. In these artworks, I foreground overlooked bodies, data, networks, and ecologies. Borderland(er)s examines narratives drawn from zones of conflict and dominant power structures – asking, how can artistic imagination affect politics of power, violence and justice? Borderland(er)s comprises of 3 artworks: 1. In Times of Violence – Poems and Paintings 2. Precarious Mob – Participatory Performance Installations 3. Rain In The Trees – Sci-fi Film in Five Episodes These artworks originate from a global partitioning of ecologies, coercive violence caused by contemporary capitalism, and technological innovation that accelerates a segmented world order. ‘Borderization’ processes transform certain spaces into uncrossable places, where specific bodies are racialized and immobilized. For these processes to be known, they must be explored, visualised, satirised and challenged. During the working period, I will hold exhibitions and presentations, and compile documentation and artworks such as poems and drawings, into artist books. Borderland(er)s functions as an interchangeable constellation of artworks for reflecting upon contemporary urgencies through which I envision the viewers as participants. As participants, viewers are no longer passive onlookers but critical spectators and witnesses. While experiencing the works, they undergo an immersive voyage through historical events and speculative futures. Through these multi-media artworks, I invite viewers to encounter the role imagination plays in history, social struggle, revolution, and resistance; and attend to key questions of to whom does the world belong.