Two architecture professors erected three seesaws on the US-Mexico border fence that connect. You have now been awarded.
Two professors caused a sensation with a special art project on the US-Mexico border: They had three pink rockers installed between the slats of the controversial border fence that the outgoing US President Donald Trump had erected, each of which protrudes into both countries.
Symbolic images
The symbolic images of how children and adults on this side and on the other side of the border use these seesaws together and play with each other went around the world in 2019. Because seesaws don't work alone – they only work together. The installation by the two professors, Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello, has now been awarded the prestigious “Beazley Designs of the Year” award, which a jury awards on behalf of the London Design Museum.
The art project …
The Mexican artist group Colectivo Chopeke was also involved in the work called “Teeter-Totter-Wall” (which translates as Wipp-Wall) (in the picture: architecture professor Ronald Rael). With this art project, the architects wanted to show that actions on one side of the border have direct consequences on the other side. A designer on the Mexican side in Juárez and one in the city of El Paso in Texas took care of the implementation.
… as a political statement
On the occasion of the award for this political statement, architect Ronald Rael told the US radio station NPR: “The most important thing is that the award is given at a time when we hope for change and when we are building more bridges instead of walls.” The steel border fence around 600 kilometers long is a central element of the strict migration policy of the outgoing US President Donald Trump. With his recent successor Joe Biden, migrants hope for a more liberal immigration policy.
