The Art of Fencestration

Now, it’s no secret, I am in to all things fence-related. I know, kind of an odd statement. In fact, I’m probably the only jerk out there you know that has a full-on fence fetish, if I must own up to it. Analyze that. Well, wait – don’t.
Anyway, so, when I saw a few days ago that Inhabitat had posted on a project by Dutch designer Tejo Remy who uses the fence as a structure for something other than just as a means to divide space, I knew had to relay it here.


[Image: Emily at Inhabitat writes, "not only are the protrusions and recessions of the fence eye-catching, but they allow for a more active interaction between those on either sides of the fence, providing seats, benches, nooks and playspaces for children."]

With ‘Playground Fence’ he turns the barrier into a kind of space unto itself beyond its normal purpose as a mere object or plane between two spaces. Instead, the fence becomes something imaginatively more dynamic, engaging even (from both sides nonetheless), which I think works very well in this context as Remy has executed it.
But, of course, being the border-fence junky that I am, it also makes me think about the same notion applied in those other more brutal contexts where borderzone politics are far more intense than the interface between playground and pedestrian walkway in an urban neighborhood. What about this type of fence-space in divided cities, and places where violence is far more institutionalized in the barriers themselves, where neighborhoods and communities – entire nations for that matter – are split in half by highly fortified security walls, border fences, defensive barriers, and so on?


[Image: Playground Fence, a project by Tejo Remy, via Inhabitat.]

Could this same playground concept apply to these other scenarios, could it be useful in some geopolitically intense border-divided context? I realize the prospect alone may sound totally absurd, especially if I were to ask, could the Israeli Separation Barrier, for example, be converted, recycled, re-used, or re-adapted in a similar fashion... could we go as far as to somehow help it become a space within itself to help suture rather than exacerbate the volatile tensegrity of the spatial divide that is invariably created by the controversial barrier?
In essence, I guess what I am trying to ask, is: could the security wall have any other purpose, dare I even say, a bi-nationally constructive one, other than just serving its current spacio-cidal colonialist strategy of imprisoning the West Bank under the auspices of preventing suicide bombers?


Well, I may have already answered that in a previous mention about how the Israeli Security Wall has enveloped one Palestinian family’s house so that they are now literally inhabiting the wall, imprisoned by it, forcibly detained and trapped within its flexible path completely against their will. So, that would make the short answer a big fat NO.
In a recent interview I did at Postopolis! Lebbeus Woods said of his own considerations about the wall, that to do anything with it – in terms of trying to re-imagine it – would only inevitably turn out to be a de facto endorsement of the wall. And so, in his judgment the only thing more that could be done with the wall at this point was to simply tear it down. Of course, he had an idea for how that should happen which you can read more about in the interview.
Still though, I am curious about the wall as a membrane through which both sides can possibly share something, exchange in a positive embrace. Not because I support the wall, but am just curious to explore all of its effects and consequences, perhaps even possibilities in the interim of attempting to bring it down permanently, wary of course that any positive use in that time may only help to buttress its existence indefinitely.


But could the fence be transformed into a kind of bridge to at least begin the process of deconstruction, towards a structure that unites? I’m not sure what that would look like or whether it is even possible. Before, Subtopia has proposed the idea of setting up an International League of Border Ball Players, for whom some have already appeared to have accepted such a challenge. We’ve also pitched the idea of turning the world’s walls into a kind of global border musical instrument. Surely, the wall can be recontextualized in some way as an early stage in the means of dismantling itself.
If you have any ideas, let us know – love to hear them.
With that said, I have no real final thought here other than to suggest that part of bringing the walls of the future down might somehow be done creatively, as a “creative act” like Lebbeus said. In the very act of re-approaching the wall and destroying it both sides could somehow come together to construct something new simultaneously in the process. So that in the end it is not just one side achieving victory over the other or a massive collaborative celebration of destruction in and of itself, but a re-construction of sorts could come about in its place. Perhaps the materials from a dismantled wall immediately become recycled and go into the construction of another joint project nearby built and shared by both sides. The wall could come down only as fast as an adjacent mutual project could come up in its place.
Etc., etc., etc. Anyway, I'll keep working on it.