The cruellest of borders are invisible to the eye and present in everyday life. The death traps set within a moving body of water and the concealed militarisation of faraway border villages.
Cultural Exchange Rate is an interactive live art project in which artist Tania El Khoury shares her family memoirs of life in a border village between Lebanon and Syria. One marked by war survival, valueless currency collection, brief migration to Mexico, and a river that disregards the colonial and national borders.
The audience is invited to immerse their heads into one family’s secret boxes to explore the sounds, images, and textures of traces of more than a century of border crossings.
Cultural Exchange Rate is based on the artist’s recorded interviews with her late grandmother, oral histories collected in her village in Akkar, the discovery of lost relatives in Mexico City, and the family’s attempt to secure dual citizenship.
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Presented as part of Take Me Somewhere 2025.
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● Please arrive 15 minutes before the time indicated on your ticket
● The performance will start on time. We cannot accommodate late arrivals.
● If you arrive after your ticketed show has begun (and are thus unable to participate in that show), front-of-house will do their best to get you admission to a later show.
● Please bring cash - especially small bills and coins. Exchange of cash is an (optional) part of the show but we strongly encourage audience members to have cash on hand so they can choose to participate in that way within the installation. Please note: Cash used during the performance will not be returned to audience members.
● The duration of the performance is about 60 minutes
● Tickets are strictly limited. If you purchase a ticket and are unable to attend, please let us know as soon as possible so that your ticket can be transferred to someone on the waitlist.