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Borders

‘The Present’, a film by Farah Nabulsi, is about a father and daughter from a Palestinian enclave in the West Bank, trying to cross borders to bring home a new fridge as a wedding anniversary gift. 

This film resonated with the Afghan children in the workshop, calling up memories of the crossing of borders that their families have experienced. But the film also provoked conversations about borders in everyday life – between people, between spaces, between people and institutions. 

This collection of artwork shows spaces from the children’s lives, including an imagination of airspaces above countries and outer space that too has become a site for wrestling control. The spaces are dissected with string that slashes across the painting to convey where they have experienced a border, evoking lines from Mexican-American poet, Alberto Rios’ Border Boy:

I grew up on the border and though I left
I have brought it with me wherever I've gone.

Its line guides me, this long, winding thread of memory.
The border wasn't as big as they say.

It fit neatly behind my eyes and between my ears
It still guides me, I know, but it is not a compass.
 
It is not a place out there but a place in here.
I catch on its barbed wire in both places.

The border I faced was entering an office. They didn’t allow me to enter the office because I didn’t have the documents!

Office Border by Labina

The border I faced was entering an office. They didn’t allow me to enter the office because I didn’t have the documents!

© Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan

1/5

During the pandemic everywhere was shut and they were not allowing us to enter the park. That was the border I faced so I can say that it was the pandemic border

Pandemic by Khal Mohammad

During the pandemic everywhere was shut and they were not allowing us to enter the park. That was the border I faced so I can say that it was the pandemic border

© Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan

2/5

The border I faced, is going out late at night because they think I am still a kid!

Late Night Borders by Kausar

The border I faced, is going out late at night because they think I am still a kid!

© Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan

3/5

The border I faced was entering the class after the first period. My teacher didn’t allow me to enter the class because I was late!

Late Border by Shahnama

The border I faced was entering the class after the first period. My teacher didn’t allow me to enter the class because I was late!

© Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan

4/5

I love to travel to other planets but there is a border that can’t let me enter other planets, so I am not able to step out of the earth!

Stepping Out of the Earth by Hadia

I love to travel to other planets but there is a border that can’t let me enter other planets, so I am not able to step out of the earth!

© Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan

5/5