For Border Zones, Tania Mouraud created a video and sound installation, Face to Face (2009), which presents visual imagery representing the issue of consumption and waste in border-crossing global economies—and which extends beyond those images to question notions of the discarded, and the re-cycling of history, in ethnic and cultural terms. Mouraud’s practice has been characterized by a concern with the elusive nature of language and the cultural characteristics that distinguish different regions from one another in an increasingly global society; at the same time, she investigates what she calls the essential human condition that crosses all boundaries. Robin Laurence writes that Mouraud’s installation “smashes images of a colossal metal dump in northern Germany against metaphors of genocide.

When asked by the curator how she would describe her installation Face to Face in terms of the questions it asks, Tania answered, “This installation makes palpable a fundamental anxiety about the future of our species and the future of the planet. It asks questions about the present—questions the spectator must confront. Are the ethical foundations of our capitalist societies strong enough to avoid disaster?””

Mouraud entered the art world as a painter in 1963, with an approach closely allied to conceptual art. She lives and works in Paris, France, exhibits internationally, and since 1976 has taught art at L’Ecole Regionale d’Expression Plastique. Throughout her career she has investigated the relationship between language, space, and imagery. She often incorporates the written word, photography, video imagery, and immersive sound compositions into large, site-specific installations, and includes elements that are inspired by the exhibition site.