Moving Walls 4

Moving Walls 4 features work by Chien-Chi Chang, John Cohen, Jan Dago, Vesna Pavlović, Joseph Rodriguez, and Alex Webb. This exhibit highlights the experiences of those living on the margins of society and profiles people and societies that are experiencing transition, facing uncertain futures, or taking part in the process of spurring personal or political change.

Street scene with a donkey.
Moving Walls 4
Alex Webb
A crowd cheering and waving flags at a political rally.
Moving Walls 4
Jan Dago
A teenage boy’s profile with two more viewed through a window.
Moving Walls 4
Joseph Rodriguez
A man eating on a fire escape.
Moving Walls 4
Chien-Chi Chang
Two groups of people in front of water and a landscape.
Moving Walls 4
John Cohen
A performer on a banner.
Moving Walls 4
Vesna Pavlović

Moving Walls 4

Open society is an elusive goal, an ideal no nation has reached. All erect barriers: political oppression, economic instability, racism, drug epidemics, and other walls. Yet even as walls are erected, there are people who are committed to bringing them down. As the name of the exhibition implies, Moving Walls is an artistic representation of this struggle.

The Fall 2000 exhibition features six artists whose work examines societies where these walls are being challenged. Chien-Chi Chang gives us a glimpse of the difficult life of Chinese-American immigrants in New York City. John Cohen examines the stratified society in Peru. Jan Dago documents the effects of political and economic change in Indonesia. Vesna Pavlović bears witness to a group of women in Yugoslavia as they rebuild their world after war and ethnic strife. Joseph Rodriguez introduces us to the lives of youthful offenders in the United States. Alex Webb's work is a portrait of Haiti, a nation wracked by dire poverty, a nearly non-existent formal economy, and a crumbling infrastructure.

These images remind us of the protracted and complex process of building open societies even as they reaffirm our faith and our commitment to traveling the long road.

Moving Walls is an annual exhibition series that explores a variety of social justice and human rights issues through documentary practice, and is produced by Open Society’s Culture and Art program. Moving Walls is exhibited at our offices in New York, London, and Washington, D.C., and includes five to nine discrete bodies of work.

Since 1998, Moving Walls has featured over 200 photographers and artists whose works address a variety of social justice and human rights issues.

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Please check back for details on the next call for proposals for Moving Walls.

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Due to precautionary measures related to the coronavirus, Moving Walls 25: Another Way Home will be closed until further notice.