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Beyond the wall || Más Alla del Muro

Giant-puppet-sized news: We’re going to the Guggenheim!

Click here to learn more and help us bring migrant teens and giant puppets to this NYC art institution this August.

 About Beyond the Wall || Más Allá del Muro

Giant puppets of children made by young people come together at the border wall to play. At 15-18’ tall, their size challenges the wall’s scale, inviting a reconsideration of what borders can represent.

Jump to: Press | Photos | Project History | Current Artists

Known for performances with 15 foot tall puppets at the US/Mexico border wall, Beyond the Wall || Más Allá Del Muro is a collaboration between Mexican and American artists and educators exploring borderland identity with youth growing up in the shadow of the border wall. Beyond the Wall || Más Allá Del Muro creates binational art programs with giant puppets to explore cultural identity with young borderlanders and migrant teens. Since co-founders Ana Díaz Barriga and Jess Kaufman created the project in 2017, Beyond the Wall || Más Allá Del Muro has built 14 giant puppets, hosted two arts and culture festivals, piloted a binational pen pal program, and performed in Nogales AZ/SON, New York, London, and Prague.

Each cycle of Beyond the Wall || Más Allá Del Muro invites a dual cohort of teens – one from each side of the border in Nogales, AZ/SON – to participate in a 12 week puppets and pen pals program. In alternating weeks, the teens play theater games and write to their pen pal around a prompt; games and prompt explore questions such as, “What does it mean to be American? Mexican? A borderlander? Who gets to define your identity? Your community’s identity?” On the 6 weeks between, the students explore how identity is presented through hands-on puppetry workshops. Each 12-week cycle culminates in a weekend-long giant puppet building workshop, where students work with professional artists to create 15 foot tall puppets that represent their cultural identity. At the end of the weekend, the students and their puppets come to the wall for a play-based “happening” where the students meet their pen pals in person through the wall.

By amplifying the voices of young borderlanders, we offer a positive, authentic counterpoint to negative narratives around migration and life at the border. BTW||MADM offers an opportunity to reconsider our relationship to borders and encourage empathy and respect for other cultures. This project works towards a world where borders are sites connection, not division.

Press

 

Project History 

History and Accomplishments:

  • Winter/Spring 2017 – Project conceived and founded by Ana Díaz Barriga Lopez and Jess Kaufman

  • Summer 2017 – First prototype puppet built (Governor’s Island “Sanctuary City” residency with The Public Works Dept. in NYC)

  • Fall 2017 – Co-led a binational festival in Nogales AZ/SON; built and performed with 5 giant puppets with local youth, artists, and community partners

  • Fall 2018 – 1st Puppets and Pen Pals developmental pilot in Nogales AZ/SON

  • Fall 2019 – 2nd Puppets and Pen Pals developmental pilot in Nogales AZ/SON

  • [Fall 2020 – Planned launch of Puppets and Pen Pals – Pandemic pause]

  • [Winter 2020 – Planned partnership with Bread and Puppet Theatre – Pandemic pause]

  • August 2024 – Project re-launch workshop at The Guggenheim Museum in NYC!

Conferences and Festivals:

  • 2019 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space: taught week-long workshop to artists from 9 countries

  • 2019 Creative Interruptions London Festival (2019)

  • 2018 NYU Steinhardt Forum on Educational Theatre

Current Artists

Susanna Brock

Ana Cantorán Viramontes

Jacksubeli Gonzalez

Jess Kaufman

Oscar Lancaster

Logan gabrielle Schulman