Amy Sara Carroll's ReMex: Toward an Art History of the NAFTA Era

Amy Sara Carroll's ReMex: Toward an Art History of the NAFTA Era interprets Mexico City-based, feminist, and border, or Chicano, art in and around the 1990s. Its premise is that aesthetics and politics “form a loop” in order to express what the author calls “Greater Mexico.” With this term, Carroll proposes that “Mexico” is no longer a territory but rather an imaginary that transcends its geographic borders. In her view, the denationalization brought about by the liberalization of markets led to a multicultural utopia best expressed in border art and art concerned with race and gender issues. In her account, aesthetic practice must serve as a direct weapon against “NAFTAfication” and colonial heteropatriarchy. Carroll draws an analogy between the selling out of the nation through the NAFTA treaty and the selling out of “post-Mexican” art to the global culture industry through the ambition of curators, cultural managers and artists who placed Mexico and Mexican contemporary art as key global art destinations by taking advantage of generous State sponsorship brought about by market liberalization. Any hint of cosmopolitism is suspicious and thus Carroll insists on “ReMexing” Mexico.

Scientific support of border activity

The object of this research is the border activity, while the subject is the science of border activity – borderology. The article consists of five sections. The first section views border activity as a system of preventive (border prevention and deterrence), security and control (border patrol, border search), and defense-militant measures (special activity, combat activity, operational actions). The second and third sections give detail description to these measures, as well as the typical stages of the cycles of activity. The fourth section is dedicated to description of the structure of borderology – the system of knowledge on ensuring border security, state c of border organizations, preparation and conduct of border activity, and its all-round provision. The fifth section provides a systemic formulation of principles of border activity. Within the framework of development of the concept of “border management system”, the author considers the border activity as a system of measures aimed at ensuring national security in the borders. The science of border activity includes the following disciplines: border art (border policy, border operational art, border tactics), border history, border statistics, mathematical theory of managing border security, legal framework of border security and border activity, philosophy of border security, psychology and sociology of border activity, theory of border training and education, theories of all-round support of border activity, theory of development, application of technical and special means of border activity.   

Scientific support of border activity

The object of this research is the border activity, while the subject is the science of border activity – borderology. The article consists of five sections. The first section views border activity as a system of preventive (border prevention and deterrence), security and control (border patrol, border search), and defense-militant measures (special activity, combat activity, operational actions). The second and third sections give detail description to these measures, as well as the typical stages of the cycles of activity. The fourth section is dedicated to description of the structure of borderology – the system of knowledge on ensuring border security, state c of border organizations, preparation and conduct of border activity, and its all-round provision. The fifth section provides a systemic formulation of principles of border activity. Within the framework of development of the concept of “border management system”, the author considers the border activity as a system of measures aimed at ensuring national security in the borders. The science of border activity includes the following disciplines: border art (border policy, border operational art, border tactics), border history, border statistics, mathematical theory of managing border security, legal framework of border security and border activity, philosophy of border security, psychology and sociology of border activity, theory of border training and education, theories of all-round support of border activity, theory of development, application of technical and special means of border activity.   

«What kind of dirt do you need?»

Only one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1990, another border could be observed at the Aperto section of the Venice Biennale. It was the work Colón Colonizado – Tutto è Mio – ¿De Quién? by the Border Art Workshop/Tallér de Arte Fronterizo (BAW/TAF), a binational collective of artists from the San Diego-Tijuana border region. The project corresponds to the first landing of Border Art overseas, but also to the dissolution of the BAW/TAF. The work is therefore subject and conductor of the essay. Its site-specificity aspects are deepened in relationship to the Biennale’s exhibition context. The analysis of this case study will present the Venice Biennial as a key moment and a stage for the transformation of the border space from geographical-territorial to mental and conceptual.