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Leonardi, Paola (2024) Borderlands: The edges of Europe [Conference abstract]. In: Border Control: Excursion, Incursion and Exclusion, 5-7 September 2024, Design History Society, UAL Canterbury.
Panel 18: Borders and Visual Identity.
Borderlands: the edges of Europe (Paola Leonardi)
"Borderlands: The edges of Europe" is a photographic project that critically re-maps the land borders of the European Union, proposing a new representation that focuses on the people who inhabit the border zones, rather than political treaties and physical boundaries decided by central powers.
Over the past 10 years I have walked along the land borders of Europe, photographing extensively and asking myself the question “Where does Europe end? What separates me from the other side?” and I have found endless examples of families and communities that have been split by borders or who felt an affinity with “the other side”.
This series focuses on the connection between people and territory and the significance of trans-national and transcultural identities, exploring the relevance of European identity and its relationship with concepts of home and belonging, memory and territory and how these have been shaped by events. It offers a unique perspective on the construction of European identity and investigates how people relate to the territories they inhabit, reflecting upon how the physical presence of a border impacts the construction and perception of cultural identities in individuals and communities.
This series utilizes photographic storytelling to visually map the physical presence of the border through the images of its inhabitants and landscapes, creating an archive of vernacular narratives and offering an insight into the multifaceted development of European identity that is accessible to a broad public. This visual re-imagining of borders shifts the narrative from the borders being liminal areas with physical barriers to being territories that are inhabited, lived and experienced and most importantly are home to communities.
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