Ronald Rael installs pink seesaws on US-Mexico border wall
An architect that changes a border environment with tension into a place where instead, children can play together. Ronald Rael is an active anti-border wall campaigner and named as an emerging voice by the Architectural League of New York. He has written the book 'Borderwall as Architecture' and spoke at a TED conference.
‘One of the most incredible experiences of my and @vasfsf’s career bringing to life the conceptual drawings of the teetertotter wall from 2009 in an event filled with joy, excitement, and togetherness at the borderwall,’ wrote rael on instagram. ‘the wall became a literal fulcrum for US-mexico relations and children and adults were connected in meaningful ways on both sides with the recognition that the actions that take place on one side have a direct consequence on the other side.’
Images show children playing on bright pink seesaws slotted into gaps of the steel wall that runs between el paso in texas and ciudad juárez in mexico. the idea of a border play park was first unveiled by rael and fratello in 2009 when alternative concepts for the wall were being developed. they produced the installation with taller herrería, a workshop located in ciudad juárez.
© RAEL SAN FRATELLO
About the artist
RAEL SAN FRATELLO is a studio of Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello, an atelier, a workshop of creative people interested in the world. We study architecture, teach architecture, talk about architecture and make drawings, images and full-scale-study models that evoke and question architecture. Architecture is a turbulent form of practice and we battle the forces that shape it as well as those that allow it to exist.
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