Chico MacMurtrie’s (2024 Creative Capital Awardee) Border Crossers are a series of lightweight robotic sculptures that poetically explore the notion of borders and boundary conditions. Please join MacMurtrie for the premiere of his film Border Crossers on February 8, 2026, at 4:00 P.M. at Pioneer Works (Main Hall).

Following the screening, join a discussion and Q&A with Chico MacMurtrie, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, and Luise Kaunert. Live activations of Chico MacMurtrie’s inflatable Border Crosser sculpture will take place from 1:00–4:00 PM, leading into the screening.

MacMurtrie’s Border Crossers are lightweight robotic sculptures that poetically explore the notion of borders and boundary conditions. These inflatable robots rise several stories high and extend across borders as a gesture of connection.

The protagonists of the 25-minute film are the Border Crossers themselves—robotic sculptures that give form to the agonized dreams of countless individuals and communities seeking to cross borders. They also convey the desire to undo the human toll and ecological damage caused by increasingly impermeable border walls. By documenting and dramatizing the journeys of these transgressive machines, the film illuminates how communities along the Mexico-U.S. border come together—sometimes quietly, sometimes joyfully, and sometimes with great fanfare—while remaining resilient in the face of dehumanizing geopolitical barriers.