ROUGH EDIT

Performing the Border, 1999 Ursula Biemann

http://www.geobodies.org/05_biography
http://www.geobodies.org/01_art_and_videos/1999_performing_the_border

VIDEO ESSAY, 45 MIN. / ENGLISH

Performing the Border is a video essay set in the Mexican-US border town Ciudad Juarez, where the U.S. industries assemble their electronic and digital equipment, located right across from El Paso, Texas. Performing the Border looks at the border as both a discursive and a material space constituted through the performance and management of gender relations. The video discusses the sexualization of the border region through labor division, prostitution, the expression of female desires in the entertainment industry, and sexual violence in the public sphere. Interviews, scripted voice over, quoted text on the screen, scenes and sounds recorded on site, as well as found footage are combined to give an insight into the gendered conditions inscribed in the border region.