Iron Razor Blade Barbed Wire
This is an electronic sound work I created during a journey through Nujiang prefecture, and is also my response to the recently built border "wall".
This is an electronic sound work I created during a journey through Nujiang prefecture, and is also my response to the recently built border "wall".
Previously, before the Covid-19 pandemic, people on both sides of the border line had close relationships - they married and forged close family ties, they used to work and celebrate festivals together, they shared the river and its fishing resources which, as a branch of the Irrawady water system, now sits on the border as a physical demarcation line.
Since 2020, in the name of controlling the separation of Covid-19, the Nujiang prefectural authorities have built several kilometers of iron razor blade barbed wire wall along the river, so that families on both sides of the border have not been able to meet for three years now, despite the fact that the impact of covid-19 is fading.
They have to go through complex official entry and exit procedures and cross the remote border fence to meet, which means that management of this border line became more formal and strict after the wall was built, and local communities began to realize the marked differences between the two sides of the border.
The frontier line, as a symbol, has become a tangible and perceptible element. At the same time, it has also led to a permanent severing of emotional and spatial ties between residents on both sides of the border. My question is: will the wire mesh wall disappear or will it remain in place permanently?
