Minerva Cuevas: Bridging Borders | Art21 "Exclusive"

[Minerva Cuevas: Bridging Borders]

The term "political activist" is problematic.

I think the challenge is to

stop using the references to activism

because everybody has this agency
to react to daily life

and therefore generate political actions.

--[NEWS CORRESPONDENT]
At the U.S.-Mexican border,

--a fence separates two worlds.

--Poverty to the south.

--Wealth to the north.

[CUEVAS] In general, I think my work
is the research I do.

I planned a project for the
Mexican and U.S. border.

My general idea was:

If there is a border, there could be a bridge.

I had never been in the area of the Rio Bravo.

I learned that the historical border
is the deepest part of the river.

At the end I found an area that was
a kind of natural bridge.

And I decided to use the rocks
in that part of the river

to cross from the U.S. to Mexico and back.

I was marking the rocks with limestone

just to make a sign of the crossing.

You could see this dotted line going
across the Rio Bravo.

With the installation,
there were elements related to walking--

like walking sticks

and books talking about the Chihuahuan desert.

The act of walking from south to north
was the most political act you could do.

[NEWS CORRESPONDENT]
President Trump's proposed wall

along the U.S.-Mexico border

could cost nearly 22 billion dollars.

As first reported by Reuters,

it could take about
three-and-a-half years to build.

[CUEVAS] You learn about the border
through media.

It's connected to limits or control.

Violence is a very strong element
in this perception

of what's the border.

Along the river, you have some border patrols;

but, there were no signs.

The whole area was free of any fence or wall.

Not witnessing anything connected to that
kind of mediatic violence,

it's the first liberation.

You realize that what is intimidating
is the desert itself.

Lately, I've been invited as part of talks

that have to do with climate change

or urban development

and the idea of
"the artist as an activist."

There is this expectation of one action
generating a lot of change.

Books and projects can be important,

but they won't be a solution.

The problems or the crisis in the world
is generated by everybody.

So it has to be also a massive reaction
what changes reality.

[CROWD CHANTING] No ban, no wall!

No ban, no wall!

No ban, no wall!

No ban, no wall!

[CUEVAS] Nationalism nowadays is linked to
violence and the Other

and the differences between communities

rather than some kind of uniting element
that is more necessary nowadays.

The wall wouldn't stop immigration.

The wall only reinforces this original imaginary

that's connecting the border with violence.

In fact, it would empower human trafficking.

It seems that the reactions are now
getting a little bit more extreme

in terms of rethinking what's being human

and what do we want from not only politics

but from our daily lives.

How do we want to confront our reality.