Help keep these encounters possible

In 2014, during a journey from Lagos, Nigeria, to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, we stopped in Bamako’s Medina district and projected a film onto the side of the van we were travelling in. Neighbours and children from the district gathered to watch. The vehicle that carried us across borders became a place to meet; the art we made became an object of relation through which encounters could unfold.

That moment holds something essential about Invisible Borders: art can help us explore the spaces and distances between peoples across inherited and imposed borders, while creating conditions for contact and encounter.

Our goal is to transcend the illusion of separation and humanize borders through artistic practice, lived encounters and the exchange of knowledge.

Founded in Nigeria in 2009, Invisible Borders is an artist-led Trans-African project. We bring artists, writers, filmmakers and cultural practitioners into exchange with one another and with the people and places they encounter. Through movement, research and artistic practice, we question the borders that shape how we see, where we belong, and whom we imagine ourselves connected to.

Some of those borders appear on maps. Others live in inherited assumptions, unequal access and the stories we repeat about one another. Our work begins with being present: listening, making, learning and allowing an encounter to change the questions we ask.

The work continues beyond the journey

Our Road Trips generate photographs, films, writing and relationships that continue through exhibitions, publications and shared learning. Over the years, these journeys have built an archive that re-enters the present through a continuing cycle of educational and artistic projects.

Our work connects grassroots encounters with artistic institutions and academic spaces. We have presented work at the Venice Biennale, Centre Georges Pompidou and Dhaka Art Summit. We also bring exhibitions and screenings into neighbourhoods, streets and public spaces in cities such as Bamako and Lagos, and into communities along our routes. Across these settings, we bring lived experience into conversation with artistic and scholarly inquiry, creating opportunities to question how borders shape identity, belonging and our relations with one another. Knowledge circulates between these spaces, shaped by the people who participate in it.

Today, this practice continues through the Invisible Borders Journal, which publishes research and artistic reflection; the Moving Archive, which brings material from past journeys into new conversations; and workshops, mentorship and collaborations where emerging and experienced practitioners learn alongside one another. We are also developing a digital platform so people elsewhere can follow and engage with the work unfolding on the road.

Together, these activities sustain a continuing effort: to make room for artistic freedom, shared knowledge and ways of relating that reach beyond the divisions we have inherited.

What your support makes possible

Your donation supports the ongoing work of Invisible Borders and the artists who take part in it. Contributions help provide for participating artists’ welfare, research and production. They also sustain publishing, workshops and public encounters, care for the archive, and the coordination and digital tools that connect these activities.

Supporting artistic work means attending to the conditions in which it is made: artists need time to research, resources to produce their work, and care for their wellbeing throughout their participation.

Much of this work happens between visible milestones: preparing a collaboration, editing a text, organising archival material, or staying in conversation after a journey ends. Sustained support gives that work continuity and allows us to plan with greater confidence.

We also aim to build lasting support for the artists, writers, researchers and arts administrators within the Invisible Borders network. Supporting their practice helps the knowledge and relationships developed through Invisible Borders reach further through their own work and collaborations.

Make a one-time gift, or choose monthly support to help keep this practice moving. Whether you have followed Invisible Borders for years or are meeting us for the first time, we invite you to take part in what comes next.

Support the work. Help keep these encounters possible.