Project R-15096

Photography and Invisible Borders: Spaces of Imagination between Switzerland and Italy. (Research)

National borders in the contemporary world are subject to contradictory visibility. While they are hyper-visible in the public debate, the mechanisms through which they are enforced and come to 'act' are often invisible. Specifically, internal European borders have been highly dematerialized and are often invisible on the ground, but they are not disappearing, nor becoming irrelevant. At the same time, the enduring hegemonic representation of borders as lines incorporates the limited perspective of nation-states, which tends to naturalize them. Engaging with the notion of 'borderscape' and focusing on the Swiss-Italian border, this book confronts the problem of borders in/visibilities. Borderscapes are composed of different official and unofficial representations and imaginations, as well as of different spatial practices. To question the in/visibility of these phenomena, the book combines perspectives and methodologies from Urban Studies, Art History, Photography Theory and Practice within the emerging multidisciplinary field of Border Studies. Through an analysis of contemporary photographic artworks - such as that of Allan Sekula, Marco Poloni, Maria Iorio and Raphael Cuomo -, a careful study of a specific territory and field research for the making of photographs by the author, the book explores how contemporary photography can reveal the visible and invisible layers of borderscapes and counter their hegemonic representations. In the Swiss Italian borderscape, the research investigates specific spatial practices of crossings – that of cross-border work and migrations – and places associated with them, developing a photographic and textual travelogue. Thus, the book elaborates both practically and theoretically the potentialities of photography to open new spaces of imagination in borderscapes through constellations of images and words.

31 May 2024 - 30 May 2025