Sections of the old Tijuana-San Diego border fence decorated with murals are being reimagined into traveling tables as part of an exhibition meant to share the stories of Friendship Park and advocate for a truly international park.
The first set of three tables, made from one old section of the fence, will be on display from Sept. 6 to 19 at the Museum of Us in Balboa Park.
The Traveling Tables of Amistad exhibition is a collaboration between the museum and the Friends of International Friendship Park nonprofit, according to James Haddan, the museum’s senior director of development and external communications.
“It’s really to talk about friendship conquering fear and the idea of a table being a place where people can come together, break bread and learn from each other,” he said.
San Diego artist Michael Leaf gave new life to the murals, painted by several artists on the U.S.-Mexico fence, by turning them into tables.
Michael Leaf tightens the screws on a table. (Luke Johnson / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The project started with what seemed like an unusual idea. When the old border fence was being replaced with a taller one, John Fanestil, the former executive director of the Friends of International Friendship Park, reached out to the museum to explore the possibility of preserving the art on some sections of the fence.
The museum then contacted U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as well as the contractor in charge of the replacement project, which agreed to donate 20 sections of the dismantled border fence.
For years, artists on the Mexican side have treated the U.S.-Mexico border fence as a canvas to express their views on the border and immigration. In the southwestern-most corner at Friendship Park, artists have added color to an area where families separated by immigration policies used to gather, despite the fence between them.
Pieces of the old U.S.-Mexico border wall sit ready to be transformed into artwork at Michael Leaf’s metal workshop in Chula Vista. (Luke Johnson / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The first set of tables was made from one 18-foot section of the fence, on which students painted the “Pinky Kiss” mural depicting two intertwined fingers. Families and friends who met at the park used to greet each other through the fence in this way.
“I hope what the tables provide people is a sense of hope,” he said. “History is not going to be thrown away and forgotten, and what it brings is a space of inspiration, love, knowledge, energy, thinking, and planning,” Leaf said.
He added that he is working on more fence-made tables and that the full exhibition is still a couple of years away. It will include not only tables, but also standing sections of the wall.
Murals are painted on the border fence in Friendship Park on the Tijuana side in 2018.
(Alejandro Tamayo / U-T file)
One challenge he came across early on was the weight of the section, which Leaf initially estimated to be about 4,000 pounds. So he figured out a way to remove the concrete from the sections, which he said reduced their weight to over 500 pounds each.
For advocates of Friendship Park, which has been closed for six years on the U.S. side, the concept behind the exhibition offers a glimpse into their vision of a truly international park where people can meet.
“This is an example of what we want to do with Friendship Park,” Fanestil said, referring to the idea of creating a space that resembles a communal table.