Encounters / Propagate — The Relational Studio

Like a Pocket of Air
Moving in Wind

Knowledge is always context-specific. Our disposition, therefore, is to share and exchange creatively: to inhabit the in-between space—the vortex of paradox that characterises the border condition—and to nurture the conditions for contact and encounter.

Invisible Borders brings artists, students, educators, cultural workers, communities and institutions into relation through workshops, mentorship, collaborative practice, field exchange and public conversation.

A crowd of neighbours and children gathered at night around a film projected onto the side of the project van
A makeshift film screening during a Trans-African Road Trip, projected onto the body of the van the artists travelled in, for the locals of the Medina district. Medina, Bamako, Mali · 2014 · Lagos – Sarajevo Trans-African Road Trip

How we encounter

Learning is made
in relation.

Invisible Borders does not approach learning as knowledge delivered from a centre. It is shaped by context, practice and reciprocal exchange. Everyone enters with a position, and everyone can be changed by the encounter.

  1. Artist collaboration

    We create conditions in which artists from different practices, generations and locations can work alongside one another, test ideas and develop new forms of collaboration.

  2. Workshops and collective learning

    Workshops connect artistic practice with local knowledge and lived experience. They create space for making, questioning and reflection among artists, students and wider publics.

  3. Mentorship and peer exchange

    Experienced and emerging practitioners learn alongside one another. Mentorship is approached as a reciprocal relationship rather than a one-directional transfer of authority.

  4. Field encounters

    Journeys bring participants into contact with people, places, organisations and situations that no fixed itinerary can fully anticipate. These encounters become part of the artistic and learning process.

  5. Public conversation

    Talks, screenings, exhibitions, readings and other gatherings allow artistic work and knowledge to circulate beyond the immediate group that produced them.

A relational cycle

It does not end;
it comes round.

“He who asks questions never loses his way.”

Igbo proverb / Onye ajụjụ anaghị efu ụzọ
  1. Question

    What do we not yet know how to ask?

  2. Make

    What can be discovered through practice?

  3. Exchange

    What changes when knowledge circulates?

  4. Return

    How does learning reorient the project?

Return is not an ending. What is learned on one journey reorients the question the next one begins with.

In development

Encountering the road
from elsewhere.

Not everyone can travel with the Road Trip. Invisible Borders is developing a digital platform that will extend the journey beyond the vehicle and the immediate route—connecting participants on the road with audiences following from elsewhere.

Conceived as more than a channel for distributing content, the platform will create another space of relation through field notes, photography, writing, sound and film shared as the journey unfolds.

See the Digital Platform project →

Ways to enter into relation

Propose
an encounter.

Invisible Borders works with artists, educators, cultural organisations and institutions to develop context-specific encounters. If you are interested in proposing a collaboration, hosting a workshop or supporting an exchange, we would be glad to hear from you.

Propose a collaboration Partner with Invisible Borders Volunteer with us