BORDER PATROL / CONTROL (2012)

PERFORMANCE, NUIT BLANCHE, TORONTO

Borders are sites of negotiation and control and, sometimes, exclusion. In 2012 Pascal Paquette and I were commissioned to create an artwork for Nuit Blanche (curator: R. Stuart Keeler). We responded by installing a border checkpoint at one of the peripheries of Nuit Blanche. We required visitors to the “Art Zone”—as we’d renamed the section of the city dedicated to Nuit Blanche—to apply for an Entry Visa, to answer questions about their personal life and to submit to arbitrary searches of their coffee cups and purses. Some obliged, some didn’t. Some stood in line for ages to obtain their visas, some didn’t. With gratitude to Carrie Brown and Andy Brown for helping us patrol and control.