Exhibition: Beyond the Wall

Join us for the opening reception on Thursday, February 27th. The exhibition will be on view until April 3rd, 2025.

Beyond the Wall records separation by design—the experience of facing oppressive walls and the ways that people transform them. When confined by a wall, fence, or barrier, we may feel alone, unable to see our experience as one in a series. Through a narrative sequence of case studies, the exhibit reveals parallels between seemingly disparate systems of control. Simultaneously, we are linked by the instinct to find a crack in the wall—a gap through which we can envision a different world or a different wall. This exhibition thus highlights the parallels between various citizen-led interventions that redefine the wall as a surface for self-expression, a shaper of gathering spaces, or something to be transgressed. Here, that effort is humanized and celebrated. The wall is a tool for both control and agency. 

Beyond the Wall rejects the designer’s role in enabling the destruction of people, places, and identities in Gaza, Palestine, and beyond. To communicate the real, human experiences behind the numbers, this exhibit captures both the struggle but also the stories of steadfastness, understanding, and visions of a better future. As argued by Micheal Sorkin and Dean Sharp in Open Gaza: Architectures of Hope, “No matter how high the fence or unrelenting the systems of control, Gaza cannot be sealed off from the world.”¹

1. Open Gaza: Architectures of Hope, edited by Michael Sorkin and Dean Sharp, American University in Cairo Press, 2021.

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