Introduction

The metaphorical image of “liquid borders” captures, both visually and conceptually, the pervasive encounters between the massive fluxes of transnational migrants and the material and intangible obstacles imposed as proliferating dispositifs of border governmentality in the globalized world. As distributions and delimitations of land that emerged and functioned historically in close connection to the notions of property and sovereignty, with the goal of demarcating cultural, religious, and political domains, borders have traditionally provided a sense of order, limit, and restriction. Ethical issues are inseparable from intercultural relations, and inextricably linked to questions of citizenship, sovereignty, human rights, territoriality, and humanitarianism. The issue of creativity related to migration and borders acquires particular relevance in these scenarios. Visual arts, performance, film, photography, music, and literature contribute to integrating the language of affect, transcendence, and singularity in situations that must neither become naturalized nor turned into mere statistics, however necessary and useful these quantifications might be.