THE RULES OF THE GAME / LAS REGLAS DEL JUEGO

Sport Event. Evento deportivo

San Diego / Tijuana, 2000-2001

| Gustavo Artigas | The Rules of the Game | Sport Event | San Diego / Tijuana, 2000-2001 |

 

Artigas’ project, titled Rules of the Games, was presented in two forms. The first involved the creation of a Fronton ball court, constructed against the US/Mexican border wall in the Colonia Libertad neighborhood in Tijuana. For the second component of this project, the artist sponsored a sporting event that consisted of two Mexican soccer teams and two American basketball teams, playing against one another, simultaneously, all on the same court. The project was designed to juxtapose the rules of each game, as well as the movements, manners, and behavior of both the spectators and players participating in each sport, in order to visually articulate the cultural similarities and disparities between the populations of these two countries. The goal of the event was for both teams to learn how to co-exist, each playing their individual games, within the same space. The project becomes a metaphor for the social, economic, and political possibilities for both countries within the space of the US/Mexico border.

Proyecto en dos partes. La primera consistió en construir una cancha de frontón en la zona de la frontera de México y EUA en Tijuana. La construcción hacía un comentario irónico sobre la barda y su posible uso. La segunda parte consistió en organizar un juego combinado: Por un lado se invitó a dos equipos de Basketball norteamericano de preparatoria a jugar un juego normal entre ellos y por otro se invitó a dos equipos preparatorianos de soccer mexicanos a jugar un juego entre ellos. La diferencia es que ambos partidos se desarrollaron en la misma cancha adaptada y al mismo tiempo, haciéndo un comentario sobre la posibilidad (o imposibilidad) de convivencia de ambas comunidades