Art and Geopolitical Borders: Contested sovereignty and art practice

In recent years there has been a growth in interest in the ways that art practice can both acknowledge and articulate the issues around geo-political borders. Borders have long functioned as a vital component of state-formation and nation building, a role that continues within the shifting politics of globalisation. Their significance is thus subject to ongoing redefinition through a dynamic between a repressive politics of containment and attempts to challenge this. Within these zones of contestation, relationships between geographies and power become both clearly visible and subject to dispute. And although this functions on one level in terms of collective experience, the effects on individuals can also be destructive and traumatic.