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Pink seesaws at US-Mexico wall win design award

AFP A child sits on a seesawAFP

While a wall is usually designed to keep people apart, this see-saw installation managed to bring people on both sides of the Mexico-US border together.

And now the Teeter Totter Wall has won the 2020 Beazley Design of the Year award, which is run by London's Design Museum.

AFP A woman plays on the installation on the Mexican border with the USAFP

The seesaws were placed through sections of the wall and allowed people in both countries to play together.

AFP Families play on seesaws at the Mexican borderAFP

They were installed by Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello at the Anapra zone in Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. Even though they were only in place for 20 minutes, video footage of people using them went viral.

AFP A Mexican soldier walks past children playing at the borderAFP

The creators spent 10 years on the project and said they wanted to talk about the border issue in "a very frank way but using humour".

AFP Children play on seesaws at the Mexican borderAFP

Tim Marlow, chief executive and director of the Design Museum, which awarded the installation the prize, said: "The Teeter-Totter Wall encouraged new ways of human connection. It remains an inventive and poignant reminder of how human beings can transcend the forces that seek to divide us."

AFP American and Mexican families play on seesaws over the Mexican borderAFP
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More on the US-Mexico border wall

Sixteen-year-old twins Ana Fernanda and Ana Luisa begin their journey from Mexico in the early hours