There are boundaries that divide us and keep us from getting to know other people. Some of these boundaries are economic status, race, the clothes we wear, our interests, the way we act, etc… It’s often human nature to stay with a group of friends we have known for a long time. But we can also learn more about other people and break down the barriers that often hold us back from knowing their true character.

41 separation walls have been built so far. Some of them have been built on the border between 2 countries. Others within disputed territories. On a smaller scale, more and more walls are also being built around privileged communities. We call them « gated communities ». Including or excluding, all these walls separate and stand as cold physical realities between people.

This sentence comes from the metaphorical poem « Mending wall », written by the American poet Robert Frost, and published in 1914. According to Frost, men continue to need marked boundaries, even when they find it difficult to justify their existence. The saying "Good fences make good neighbors" can be traced to the Spanish, "Una pared entre dos vecinos guarda más (hace durar) la amistad," which goes back at least to the Middle Ages.

The idea of building a wall to keep someone out is not a new phenomenon. But since the attacks on 9/11, walls have been a predominant security answer to global challenges such as terrorism, immigration or poverty.

The “running fence” consisted of a veiled fence 24.5 miles long extending across the hills of Sonoma and Marin counties in northern California. The project, whose purpose was to link suburban, urban and highway cultures, brought together local ranchers who never thought much about art. Suddenly, they found themselves united with their neighbors to help produce the massive installation. A fence that united, when today’s fences strive to divide.

According to Reece Jones, the American author of « Border Walls » (2012), the existence of the wall justifies the distinction between two territories as « homelands » for their populations. Connections that may have existed before are severed, and the barrier exacerbates the dehumanization of the other on the outside ».

For decades, the Jim Crow laws appeared to be permanent. In his book « Operation Gatekeeper and Beyond » (2010), the American author Joseph Nevins asks himself whether « at some not-too-distant point in the future, people will look back on our current system of legally enshrined global apartheid with the same disgust as the present-day perceives slavery ».

After having spitten on a fan during a concert at the Montreal Olympic Stadium in July 1977, Roger Waters shared with his producer his feelings of alienation he was experiencing on the tour. The spitting incident became the starting point for the new “Pink Floyd” album: “The Wall”. It is considered as a rock opera that explores abandonment and isolation, symbolised by a metaphorical wall.

Social media helped us redefine the idea of community by opening virtual spaces made up of knowledge sharing, exchanges, debates, meetings and mobilization. In opposition to borders, which divide the homogeneous earth into territorial unites, the globalized world in which we live thanks to social media is made up of flowing and moving networks that disrupt old logics and open up new possibilities.