☰
About Magazine Places Projects
Skip to content

How Ana Teresa Fernández erased the US-Mexico border

Last updated: April 16, 2025
Performances
Activist art, Ana Teresa Fernandez’s art, Art & Borders, Art in Mexicali, Art in Nogales, Art in Tijuana, Art interventions, Artworks & exhibitions in Mexico, Artworks & exhibitions in USA, Collaborative art, Conceptual art, Invisible art, Site-specific art
3 min read
Ana Teresa Fernández – Erasing the Border – Borrando la Frontera, 2012, Playas de Tijuana, Mexico
1 Ana Teresa Fernández – Erasing the Border – Borrando la Frontera, 2012, Playas de Tijuana, Mexico
    • 1.Introduction
    • 2.How Fernández erased the border
    • 3.Video: Interview with Ana Teresa Fernández
    • 4.Borrando la Frontera” (Erasing the Border)
    • 5.People joined & helped her
    • 6.Video: Ana Teresa Fernández: How art allowed me to erase borders
    • 7.Analysis
    • 8.Erasing the border in both Mexico & the US
    • 9.Conclusion
    • 10.Explore nearby

Introduction

Ana Teresa Fernández, an artist born in Tampico, Mexico 1, who studied in San Francisco, California and Lausanne, Switzerland, is known for her ability to make powerful statements. Her statement is especially strong when it comes to the politics of space and place.

How Fernández erased the border

Her piece, Erasing the Border, is one of her most commanding works in which, alongside several other artists, residents, students and activists, she led an attack against the Mexico-US border 2 wall, with the goal of “erasing” sections of the border. Sections of the fence were painted by Fernández to match the vast sky so that when viewed from afar, there is the illusion of gaps in the fence. This appearance of a broken link, a useless border, is an effective statement on the arbitrary concept of borders separating place from place.

Ana Teresa Fernandez - Erasing the Border - Borrando la Frontera - Playas de Tijuana
2 Ana Teresa Fernández – Erasing the Border – Borrando la Frontera, 2012, Playas de Tijuana, Mexico
Ana Teresa Fernandez - Erasing the Border - Borrando la Frontera - Playas de Tijuana
3 Ana Teresa Fernández – Erasing the Border – Borrando la Frontera, 2012, Playas de Tijuana, Mexico

Painting in Mexicali

YouTube video
1 min 35 sec

Video: Interview with Ana Teresa Fernández

YouTube video
4 min 46 sec

Borrando la Frontera” (Erasing the Border)

Fernández has been erasing the border wall in her series of installations “Borrando la Frontera” (Erasing the Border), beginning in 2011, where she erased a wall in Tijuana, Baja California. Before this, she did a series of performance pieces near the border. She chose to use her art to breakdown the jail bars that impeded the sight of those in the border town by allowing people to see what it would look like if the bars didn’t run down the beach breaking up the scenery. From a distance, the landscape is continuous, not broken apart by the intrusive fence.

People joined & helped her

As word of her work began to spread, more and more artists, locals, and border organizations wanted to be part of her project. They, too, wanted to make a statement and wanted to see the sections of border fences erased in Texas and Arizona. Texas and Arizona were politically charged sites in particular as they have recently passed a series of severe anti-immigration laws and vigilante militias enacting violence and inciting fear at the border.

Video: Ana Teresa Fernández: How art allowed me to erase borders

YouTube video
16 min 8 sec

Analysis

The work of Fernández is significant now, as there is a new president-elect, Donald Trump, who has built a winning campaign around threats to extend and raise the wall to block immigrants 34. Thus, her work becomes an even more powerful statement, in how she opens up the border and unlocks our imaginations, bringing us to a more open and inclusive world; one where we do not fear our neighbors and try to keep them away.

Ana Teresa Fernández – Erasing the Border – Borrando la Frontera, Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, 201
4 Ana Teresa Fernández – Erasing the Border – Borrando la Frontera, Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, 2015, photo: Nick Oza
Ana Teresa Fernández – Erasing the Border – Borrando la Frontera, Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, 2015
5 Ana Teresa Fernández – Erasing the Border – Borrando la Frontera, Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, 2015

Erasing the border in both Mexico & the US

At her most recent event, groups came to the three sections of the fence in Mexicali, Baja California; Agua Prieta, Sonora, and; Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua to erase the border. Groups from both Mexico and the U.S came to each site at the same time, as a planned attack, and began to paint and erase the fence. This unified people on both sides of the divide, effectively making the purpose of the fence (to separate people) mute.

Conclusion

Through her work, Ana Teresa Fernández proves that art is an effective political tool, a weapon even. One that can bring people together, bring freedom, and make a remarkable statement.

Ana Teresa Fernández – Erasing the Border – Borrando la Frontera, 2015
6 Ana Teresa Fernández – Erasing the Border – Borrando la Frontera, 2015
Ana Teresa Fernández – Erasing the Border – Borrando la Frontera, 2015
7 Ana Teresa Fernández – Erasing the Border – Borrando la Frontera, 2015

All images by Ana Teresa Fernández unless otherwise noted.

Explore nearby
Playas de Tijuana, Mexico

  • Richard Jackson's Bad Dog
    Installation ended (dismantled in 2013)147 km away
  • Chris Burden's Shoot
    Performance ended (staged in 1971)149 km away
  • Yoshitomo Nara's dog sculptures
    153 km away
  • Thomas Struth in Disneyland
    Photo documentation (2013)160 km away
  • Olafur Eliasson turned rivers green
    Installation ended (in 1999)194 km away

Citation

Footnotes

1. https://publicdelivery.org/tag/mexico/
2. https://publicdelivery.org/tag/border/
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_presidential_campaign,_2016#Border_wall_and_illegal_immigration
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_presidential_campaign,_2016#Border_wall_and_illegal_immigration
1. https://publicdelivery.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Ana-Teresa-Fernandez-–-Erasing-the-Border-–-Borrando-la-Frontera-2012-Playas-de-Tijuana-Mexico.jpg ↩
2. https://publicdelivery.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Ana-Teresa-Fernandez-Erasing-the-Border-Borrando-la-Frontera-Playas-de-Tijuana-2.jpg ↩
3. https://publicdelivery.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Ana-Teresa-Fernandez-Erasing-the-Border-Borrando-la-Frontera-Playas-de-Tijuana-3.jpg ↩
4. https://publicdelivery.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Ana-Teresa-Fernandez-Erasing-the-Border-Borrando-la-Frontera-NOGALES-2015.jpg ↩
5. https://publicdelivery.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Ana-Teresa-Fernandez-Erasing-the-Border-Borrando-la-Frontera-2.jpg ↩
6. https://publicdelivery.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Ana-Teresa-Fernandez-Erasing-the-Border-Borrando-la-Frontera-4.jpg ↩
7. https://publicdelivery.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Ana-Teresa-Fernandez-Erasing-the-Border-Borrando-la-Frontera-5.jpg ↩
← Previous Post
Next Post →

Public Delivery Logo

Most visited arts non-profit online. Established in 2011 in Seoul, South Korea. Projects in over 100 countries.

Nearby

Yoshitomo Nara's dog sculptures
153km away

Herbert Bayer's Double Ascension
199km away

Chris Burden's Metropolis II
205km away

Magritte's This is not a pipe painting
205km away

Stay in touch

Discover more

  • Rael-San-Fratello-Teeter-Totter-Wall-2019-Anapra-New-Mexico-US-Mexico-border.–scaled
    Why were there seesaws at the border?
  • Checkpoint-Charlie-Berlin-Germany feat
    Keith Haring's subversive Berlin Wall mural - The story behind
  • Carlos-Cruz-Diez-Spatial-Chromointerference-2018-26-projectors-30-cubes-installation-view-Buffalo-Bayou-Park-Cistern-2018-2019.-
    Carlos Cruz-Diez's Cistern work needs you to be complete
  • Francis Alÿs, Paradox of Praxis I (Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing), Documentation of an action, Mexico City, 1997
    Why did Francis Alÿs push a block of ice for 9 hours?
  • Richard-Misrach-Wall-Near-Los-Indios-Texas-2015-
    Richard Misrach - The border wall as you've never seen (or heard) it
  • Robert-Rauschenberg-–-Erased-de-Kooning-1953-traces-of-drawing-media-on-paper-with-label-and-gilded-frame-64.14-cm-x-55.25-cm feat
    Why did Robert Rauschenberg erase a de Kooning?
× ‹ Expanded image view ›
No cookies. No tracking. Your visit is 100% private.
Instagram | Telegram