Cross-border art project records frontier fence before it comes down 

Artists brought a touch of creativity to the border on Wednesday, using a Japanese printing technique to record the frontier fence and the memories associated with it as part of a cross-border cultural project against the backdrop of a treaty that will transform Gibraltar’s relationship with the Campo and the EU beyond. 

The project, called Gibtaku: Traces of the Past and Present, included artists from Gibraltar, Cadiz and La Linea, who used the gyotaku printing technique to create frottage and print works directly from the frontier fence. 

For a few hours on Wednesday morning, the artists, including local A-level students and art students from La Casa de la Cultura in La Linea, sketched on paper mounted on the frontier fence. 

The project is curated Bruto Pomeroy and led by artists Barbara Shunyi and Alan Perez. 

Mr Perez described how the frontier has been a point of division. 

“Now we are finally, creatively, changing the perspective of the frontier, in a way, before it goes down,” he said. 

Mr Perez said the idea of the frottage came from Ms Shunyi as she has worked in Asia. 

Ms Shunyi explained that this Japanese technique stems from fishermen who caught very large fish and, to prove they were not lying, would create a frottage of the fish. 

For the second phase of the project, Mr Perez will produce an installation and Ms Shunyi will be printmaking, and the third phase will be exhibitions in Gibraltar, La Linea, and Madrid. 

Currently the public is invited to attend the Fine Arts Gallery and write their memories of the frontier. 

Mr Perez shared some of his own memories, describing how his family would visit the frontier fence to talk to family members from Casares. 

“It was very emotional, because people would connect and shout at each other [through the fence],” he said. 

“On a personal level, this is sort of a full circle for me and I think it's very important that we've brought people from La Línea and Gibraltar.” 

Gibraltarian students Adrianne Durante and Susan Da Costa worked alongside Ana Belén Mendoza, a student at La Casa de la Cultura. 

Miss Mendoza remembered crossing the frontier with her father as a child, adding that taking part in the project has been emotionally moving for her. 

Miss Da Costa said the experience had been enjoyable as it has brought together cultures. 

“I think it’s a really good experience to unite all of us and celebrate the opening of the frontier,” Miss Durante said. 

All three students are keen to continue to develop their art and enjoyed taking part in the project. 

Dr Amparo Diaz, who works at the GHA’s memory clinic, took part in the project due to all those memories shared with her by patients of the closed frontier era. 

She said the majority of her patients were born in the 1930s and are traumatised by the frontier closure. 

“They talk about this all the time,” she said. 

“They talk about when it was closed and they had to shout to each other [through the fence] and I think it is wonderful that it is disappearing.” 

She added that dementia patients are stuck in the old, bad memories and they talk all the time about the frontier closure. 

Dr Diaz, who is a pianist, will be composing a piece for the exhibition. 

“It’s quite emotional to see people talking about how they were children… they remember and its heartbreaking to hear so many bad memories about [the frontier closure],” Dr Diaz said. 

She said that this project will be very important for the generation who lived through the frontier closure. 

“They are the foundation of Gibraltar,” she said. 

“We cannot forget them and this is part of their lives.” 

She added that she was drawn to come and help the project after hearing about these memories from her patients. 

“Unfortunately, bad memories you don’t forget them,” she said. 

“It’s sad. The good memories we tend to forget.” 

Memories can also be emailed to Mr Perez: perezalan@hotmail.com