STILL LIFE AT THE BORDER
Collaboration
CEUTA_SPAIN / BERLIN_GERMANY
2020
Team work with Mari Paz Agundez Leria, Christina Papadopoulou, Catalina Jardón, Mariam Khademi
Collaboration
CEUTA_SPAIN / BERLIN_GERMANY
2020
Team work with Mari Paz Agundez Leria, Christina Papadopoulou, Catalina Jardón, Mariam Khademi
The border of
Ceuta, separating the Spanish Schengen Area from Morocco and the African
continent represents a dichotomy of productivity and inequality. While it
embodies a productive space and generates urban life, it is also inherently a
site of collision as it is a mechanism for separation. Along with its corollary
infrastructure, the border triggers the informal formation of urban
settlements, contributing to an increase in socio-economic injustice. Embedded in its frontier
character is a ubiquitous misrepresentation of people inhabiting the border districts, which are consistently associated
with a population group that is illegal, dissimilar, or undesirable.
Consequently,
Ceuta is defined by a distinct socio-spatial division between the city center, hosting an predominantly
Christian upper class, and the border districts, accommodating a working class of largely
muslim background and a considerable migrant community. Social
segregation is furthered by the exclusion of the border regions from any
masterplan to date, leading to uncontrolled construction
of informal settlements surrounding the border. Furthermore, the
vast military presence, largely attributed to the surveillance of the border to
the European Union, puts additional restraints to the usage of space, due to
extensive securitised zones.

To challenge this
misrepresentation of the border districts based on social and racial
segregation, our proposal aims to activate the border region and make out of it
a polarized space of attraction. The project intends to do this virtually,
exploiting technological possibilities, such as social media. As reference, we
have relied on architect Andrés
Jacque’s Sex and the So-Called City(2017), in which he explains behaviours of New York City investors and constructors,
isolating project sites based on the volume of virtual activity occurring in
certain neighbourhoods. Places with higher volume of virtual activity become “hotspots”, more likely to
attract investors and gentrification.


Increasing the
traffic at a specific geolocation, we will boost
social media activity at the border. The project will source virtual
activity and content on internet platforms such as, i.e. Twitter, Instagram,
Facebook, pinpointing the geolocation to the border. In doing so, we hope
to
not only manipulate the perception of the area to attract potential investors
to transform the space, but to create a fundamental social reaction in the
enclave, encouraging citizens to participate in the negotiation of the borderscape,
rather than forfeiting it to the border infrastructure.

In addition to
virtual activity, our proposal further acts in a transcalarway, connecting the virtual and physical world. We implement
a series of wireless poles distributed around the border, which act as a
multipliers and generators of virtual activity. The poles are also
equipped
with sound recording devices and cameras which will record the still life at
the border, generating material that will be uploaded in the virtual world.
Thus, showing in the virtual world the reality of the border; the still
life, the sounds, and the scenery.

