INVISIBLE BORDERS – PUBLIC ART MUNICH - STUNDE NULL? wie wir wurden was wir sind – 2025

INVISIBLE BORDERS

30th of November, ODEONSPLATZ, 4-8 pm

The idea of being able to move without border controls shaped Europe for a long time, particularly with the Schengen Agreement of the 1980s. Today, border controls have once again become part of everyday life at several German borders. The project “Invisible Borders” examines German migration policy from 2015 to the present in relation to border controls and racial profiling. In cooperation with the Offen! campaign—a coalition of 200 initiatives advocating for a society based on solidarity—Anna McCarthy installed makeshift border architecture and 40 police officers on one of the main squares in Munich, conducting border controls on a busy weekend amidst the opening of Christkindl markets. Hereby the topic was brought into the centre of the city and brought into

INVISIBLE BORDERS by Anna McCarthy, created in collaboration with the Offen! Campaign and performers Philip Errico, FABÍOLA, and Charlotte Huber, with music by Anton Kaun and production by Sabine Klötzer, is an artistic intervention at Odeonsplatz, Munich.

Public Art Munich – Annuale 2025

As part of a citywide program addressing the postwar period in Munich under the title “Zero Hour? How We Became What We Are.”, key questions that remain relevant today take center stage: What is the relationship between democracy, immigration, and memory? How can authoritarian structures be overcome and a democratic society be created?

After the end of the war in 1945, Munich was a city in great flux. Six temporary projects by Munich-based artists in Annuale 2025 address the transformations and enduring structures of urban society after 1945, offering artistic commentary on democracy, cultures of remembrance, repression, and ideology.

https://www.publicartmuenchen.de/projekte/invisible-borders/

4-7 pm: POLICING THE POLICE - 40 masked policemen check two vehicles in a tableau-vivant mimicing a control situation at a German border.
A group of 4 unmasked performers look over their shoulders and document, critique and (via headset transmission) repeat methods of how to act as a victim of racial profiling or in solidarity, as well as reciting information regarding police conduct and Schengen regulations – in five languages. Excerpts from current US strategies of countering similar such situations in regards to ICE are also included. Sounds of the searches underlie the speaking - there are mics hooked up to the vans and tent - ampflying the closing and shutting of doors or sounds of the metal skeleton of the tent. A noise musician & vocalist pick up on these sounds and improvise, creating an underlying soundscape.
7-8 pm: The police are gathered and placed in two lines: they move out across the square in two opposing straight lines facing outwards. In a domino effect, the ‘police’ demask the person in front of them one after the other, followed by an individual removal of their vests in a domino-butterfly movement. The police are symbolically transformed into civilians and are then called to dismantle the border architecture communally - the tarp, is removed, the metal skeleton is disassembled, the signs are packed up and finally the powermoon lamps are turned off. The entire set up is disassembled, all the while the sound is continually picked up by the contact mics, amplifying the dismantling to a cacophony of sounds.

8-10pm: Lastly, the bus with the remaining performers follow the patterns on the floor to leave the sqaure followed by the vehicles in a choreography of goodbyes.