Tearing down Trump's wall before it's built - with music
Tearing down Trump's wall before it's built - with music
On June 3, the Dresden Symphony Orchestra will perform on the US-Mexican border, joined by musicians from both countries. Orchestra director Markus Rindt tells DW why he even sees the potential for something much bigger.
06.04.2017
Author Rick Fulker
Tear Down This Wall!" is the name of an artistic project with which the Dresden Symphony takes a stand against walls - both real ones and the kind in people's minds. The crowdfunding-financed concert could possibly give start to a chain of events along the full length of the border between the US and Mexico, hopes its director.
Deutsche Welle: How was the idea born to stage a concert on June 3 in Friendship Park, on the border between San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico?
Markus Rindt: We were invited to tour Mexico. Then I kept reading about plans for Trump's wall. Nine meters (30 feet) high, it's an abomination in our day and age. So we thought: as long as we're in Mexico, why not to take a stand - and at the same time, draw attention to the miseries of refugees in the Mediterranean Sea and along the many borders of this world, also in Europe?
Markus Rindt (Graziela Diez)
Markus Rindt, director of the Dresden Symphony Orchestra
What does the border look like in Friendship Park?
The fortification is very high there, and the holes in the grated fence are just big enough to poke your fingers through. But we are also calling on other people all along the 3,200-kilometer (2000-mile) border to join in. We want peaceful protest, original artistic actions, volleyball games over the wall - at least at those locations where it's not too high -, music, dance and performance of every kind. We want to make a statement that walls are not the solution to this world's problems. The title "Tear Down This Wall" is a quote from the famous speech Ronald Reagan gave at the Berlin Wall nearly exactly 30 years before, on June 12, 1986.
More:
http://www.dw.com/en/tearing-down-trumps-wall-before-its-built-with-music/a-38327920
Editorials and other articles:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016182803
