The geopolitical meaning of a contemporary visual arts upsurge on the Canada / US border (original) (raw)

Introduction of the paper : WHY SEEK A VISUAL UNDERSTANDING OF BORDERS? Their common border can be seen as a synecdoche of the complex relationship that ties Canada and the United States together: not only is it the longest border in the world (at 8,891 kilometres—5,061 kilometres on land and 3,830 kilometres at sea), but also it represents a line where strong and soft politics and geopolitics converge. One can say that the border not only divides the two states but reflects their relations. Until recently, the border was considered one of the most “benign” the world—an exceptional label, considering the border’s length. For over two centuries, political divisions between the two countries, inherited in part from a colonial divide in the east but also from the outcome of frontier competition in the west, did not represent an obstacle to everyday life in the border regions. In fact, various economic activities have benefitted from the proximity of different fiscal regimes, from the most direct (houses built on the line in order to evade taxation) to the more complex industrial systems, such as that of the automobile industry in the Great Lakes region. These activities have led to the consolidation of a number of cross-border regions, enhanced by NAFTA, which are witnesses to both the vitality and variety of interactions along the line. The border between Canada and the United States has a history of cultural hybridity, which appears so self-evident that it has been much less studied than that separating the US from Mexico. This cultural similarity is due as much to proximity as to a relatively peaceful history (no war has opposed the two countries on their homelands since the Anglo-American conflict of 1812-1814) and a common European, Anglo-dominated origin, which leaves Canada, with the exception of Quebec, and the US with a shared language. Yet the construction of complex sets of values resulting from the process of nation-building on both sides of the line has led to cultural differentiation. (Exceptionally, although First Nations territorialities still partly straddle the line.) In fact, culture in the border regions can be a good indicator of border changes between the countries. In spite of the closeness of cultural identities in the border regions, group differentiation has occurred over the divide and can be noted through ideas and the material expression of those ideas. It has been said that on borders, culture “mitigates constantly to enable interaction while maintaining sovereignty.” Furthermore, considering that culture consists of “differing arrays of power that organize society in this way, and not that,” cultural analysis can provide insight into the societal effects of a border system. The changes that have recently affected the Canada-US border are symptomatic of post-9/11 bilateral relations, as well as indicators of more general geopolitical trends. In a context of boundary enhancement that has restricted passage in regions that used to be highly integrated, new kinds of artistic expressions are emerging that attest to significant cultural change. Artistic activities are generally granted to be a central component of cultural dynamics. In this paper I examine the emergence of contemporary art production in the borderlands between Canada and the United States since 9/11. I treat this emergence as a marker of cultural responses to the securitization processes of the past decade, choosing visual arts (paintings, photographs, videos, and performances) because these forms in particular lend themselves to depictions of spatiality and geography. The purpose of the research project on which this article is based was to discover whether a general aesthetic tendency can be observed in borderlands, which are becoming one of the main loci of a contemporary visual arts, and whether the art in these border regions comments on “rebordering”—changes in the regulations and understood definitions of borders. Considering the difficulty of analyzing this tremendously long borderline in an exhaustive way, I chose to concentrate on both of its extremities, basing field work in the Quebec-Vermont region, as well as in the British Columbia-Washington State Cascadia. These boundary segments have both been traced along latitudinal parallels (the 45th in the east and the 49th in the Pacific region); they are also among the more densely populated borderlands (with notable differences, though, between the urban outskirts of Vancouver and the rural eastern lands). In regions marked by a notable north-south asymmetry, we have concentrated on Canadian border “artsscapes”. Whether figurative or not, contemporary art is not intended to represent reality: its emotional power is in its potential to trigger thoughtful or emotional reactions in spectators; its performing capacity can make us feel what it tackles. The materiality of the art project appeals to our sense and sensation of space; thus we examine borders through the perspective of what can be qualified as a non-representational geography. Through analysis of these projects, I hypothesize that the visual art upsurge in the borderlands between Canada and the United States represents a strong reaction to a rebordering, which this art both enacts and denounces.