Ursula Biemann | The Centre Pompidou New Media Collection
Performing the Border, 1999, video, colour, 42:00 min
In Performing the Border, Ursula Biemann studies the harmful impact of globalization on the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez. Through personal interviews with local women and activists, she documents the destructive impact of multinational corporations on the town.
American companies that produce electronic and digital equipment assemble their products in local factories, which the Mexicans call maquiladoras. The maquiladoras are mass-production plants in which the workers are poorly paid. Nevertheless, the prospect of work, and the hope of illegally crossing the border into the US, attract migrant populations from other regions of the country. As a result, traditional family structures are destabilized and the border area is transformed into a lawless, transitory terrain.
