Announcing the second edition of the International art exhibition BORDERLINE[S]
BORDERLINE[S], the second edition of an art exhibition first held in March 2016 by cultural and artistic platform THE THIRD DOT, will host thirty local and regional artists in Port-Louis’ emblematic Granary building from the 12th to the 27th April. The venue will be transformed into a pop-up Art Museum that will house close to one hundred works of art in nine different media, including painting, photography, sculpture, artistic performance and film. Following a call for proposals on the topic of research and production, an international panel selected projects submitted by thirty artists from Mauritius, Réunion, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, India and Australia.
“It is by living on the borderline of history and language, on the limits of race and gender, that we are in a position to translate the differences between them into a kind of solidarity.”1
Many changes have been affecting the art world for several decades. African and Asian societies are being shaken up by rapid changes (displacements, migrations, economic developments, epidemics, climate change, political reconfigurations, demographic explosion, or urbanisation) that occur beyond the colonial past that has ruled over the region. These changes trigger more and more innovative and interrogative practices in the creative world. BORDERLINE[S] is therefore an invitation to question these phenomena, but also their
consequences and our ability to live in cultural difference and diversity.
The history of cultural diversity starts with that of the decolonisation of the imaginary and integrates a dynamic blend of aesthetics both by tradition and by contact with the contemporary world. When hybridity is expressed, it offers the potential to live and evolve in the in between, in an existence which lies on a threshold. In addition, as Edward Said explains in Orientalism , in the space where the dialogues enrich and where the unions draw the new spheres in which we wish to live, today and for the next generations. This ocean which is made up of multiple cultures, is thus indeed a site where diversity offers a continuous search, between the legacy of the past, the creative force of the present, and the hope of the futures that we choose now.
If the artist is the producer of singularity, he is no less inscribed in a context of production that conditions the modes of circulation and recognition of his art. The time has therefore come to multiply the possibilities of the gaze, to encourage the proliferation of new sources of inspiration and creation. As Frantz Fanon thought, we need to show the complexity of our living and changing culture.
“After all, reality is nothing but the transient result of what we do together, as Marx wrote.”2
THE THIRD DOT, curator of the BORDERLINE[S] project, is a consultancy and amplification platform created by Alicia Maurel and Laetitia Lor. It aims to develop and promote intercultural projects between Mauritius, the Indian Ocean, the surrounding coasts, and the rest of the world, in the fields of art and craftsmanship. Both women live on the Island of Mauritius and are aware that contemporary culture is in constant evolution; they reflect upon the hybridity and diversity of the art produced in the countries found within and around this ocean, its regional and international recognition. They also ponder upon this art’s future, which will only remain alive through an installation of a common effort to keep it so.
TO CONTACT THE THIRD DOT, PLEASE CALL (+230) 58.40.49.50
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1: Bhabha, The location of culture, 244
2: Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics, 85
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THE THIRD DOT is grateful to its sponsors BMW Group, MCB and IBL Group for their partnership on this second edition of BORDERLINE[S]. Their generous backing has made it possible to support individual artists and to help those from the region travel to Mauritius. A number of talks, workshops and roundtables will also be held throughout the duration of the exhibition.