Artivism on the Frontera

By Adriana Kuri Alamillo. The U.S.-Mexico border is a platform for art activism by Border Artists whose goal is to create a society that views hybridity of culture, race, and practice as a positive trait rather than a threat. Analyses of the border as a fraught zone of international and intercultural contact reveal culturally blended 'borderlands' that operate under the effects of racial and economic power structures. I explore these borderlands as a physical and conceptual space for creation, in which artists become performers of a dual role as cultural producers and activists. The formulation of the border as a society and cultural terrain rather than a boundary line destabilizes its essential exclusionary nature. This allows for the creation of Border Art that purposefully acts as political strategy meant to generate conversation, change attitudes towards immigration, and perform the presence of those without formal political capital. Published in 2016.