Christoph Büchel's border wall prototypes as art to fight xenophobia

Christoph Büchel has turned eight prototypes of Donald Trump's proposed US-Mexico border wall into artworks, petitioning to have them listed as national monuments. The prototypes, built by eight different companies at a cost of $3.3 million, are identical in size but vary in other characteristics, designed to withstand heat and impact while being aesthetically pleasing from the US side. Büchel draws a parallel to Stonehenge, suggesting the walls could serve as a reminder of a divisive idea. The article argues that poets and artists are essential to combat racism and xenophobic policies, using linguistic codes to reconnect ethics and human identity. The piece references Peter Sloterdijk's concept of intellectuals as those who fail to escape the world and instead take responsibility for it. The article was published on Artribune Magazine #44 by Lucrezia Longobardi.