We have begun placing each of the Peace Doors along The High Line on Manhattan’s West Side in New York City, and will continue to do so as we complete them.
Whether the public is aware of it or not, they will be passing through the doors as they walk along The High Line.
We have created a Peace Doors Google Map api in order to assist people in finding nearby Peace Doors as the project develops.
The Military Demarcation Line (MDL), sometimes referred to as the Armistice Line, is the land border or demarcation line between North Korea and South Korea. On either side of the line is the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The MDL and DMZ were established by the Armistice at the end of Korean War in 1953.
DMZ Peace Door model in development environment.
Modeled after traditional Korean architecture, this Peace Door includes augmentations along the DMZ.
Here is a visualization of the DMZ Korea Peace Door at the Bridge of No Return. The bridge was used for prisoner exchanges at the end of the war. The name originates from the claim that many war prisoners captured by the United States did not wish to return home. The prisoners were brought to the bridge and given the choice to remain in the country of their captivity or cross over to the other country. But if they chose to cross the bridge, they would never be allowed to return.
Mark Skawarek and I first met in the summer of 2009 in Belfast at ISEA. We were both in an exhibition that Kathy Rae Huffman curated at the Golden Thread Gallery. I had been living in Belfast that entire summer working on the field research and production for Imaging Belfast, an immersive, user activated art installation and virtual environment, created on location along the Peace Line that separates the Protestant and Catholic communities of West Belfast. One day Mark and I decided to get away from the symposium and I took him on a tour of the peace line. That night, at the Duke of York, over pints of Guinness, Mark and I vowed to collaborate on a future project of some sort. A year and a half later we initiated the Peace door project. The Belfast Door was the first augment of the project. Based on architectural features common in the city of Belfast, the door way represents an invitation for peace in the city.
There are nine Peace Doors located at crossing points along the Peace Line in West Belfast. This version of the Peace Doors project addresses the ongoing conflict between the Catholic and Protestant communities there. The Peace Line is constructed of walls, fences, industrial complexes and even a shopping mall, designed to separate the Protestant Shankill neighborhood from the Catholic Falls Road neighborhood. The first Peace Line barriers were built in 1969, following the outbreak of the 1969 Northern Ireland riots and “The Troubles“. They were built as temporary structures because they were indeed meant to be temporary, lasting only six months, but due to their effective nature they have become more permanent, wider and longer.
johncraigfreeman