geobodies
Ursula Biemann
art and videos / performing the border geobodies-org menú
art and videos /performing the border
  • performing the border
  • performing the border
  • performing the border
  • performing the border
  • performing the border
  • performing the border
  • performing the border
  • performing the border
  • performing the border
  • performing the border
  • performing the border
  • performing the border
  • performing the border
  • performing the border
1999

performing the border

video essay, 43 ‘

Performing the Border is a video essay that describes a particular place, a desert city on the U.S. Mexico border. Juarez City is located in a free trade zone that has been installed along the entire frontier for assembly operations of the U.S. industry. The video addresses questions around international labor division, migration and the sexualization of female bodies in the global economy, it traces the spatial inscription of gender relations into a post-industrial setting, it discusses the connection between the racialized body and high technology, it reveals the urban pathology in the public sphere and describes the construction of borders both in a metaphorical and a material sense.

By investigating the global gendered labor division, the thriving prostitution and sexual violence in the public sphere, the video engages the diverse forms of sexualisation of the transnational zone and sheds light on the border as both a discursive and a material space. It also brings into dialog the shared particularities of the video essay and transnationalism.

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