mare/B-Shapes
Through the Prism of Borders
Through the Prism of Borders is Lungomare’s contribution to B-Shapes – Borders Shaping Perceptions of European Societies, a Horizon Europe research and innovation project aimed at exploring the role of borders in shaping perceptions of societies, culture, heritage, and belonging.
Lungomare, a cooperative for cultural production, is a partner in this project, working alongside eight European universities, as well as institutions including a research institute, a national museum, a foundation, a political association and a consultancy. Lungomare contributes with a series of site-specific artistic productions that reflect on public, individual and spatial narratives, aiming to create a more diverse understanding of borderlands.
Within the framework of Through the Prism of Borders, these artistic interventions take place across two European borderlands. Artists Georgi Bogdanov and Boris Missirkov, Esra Ersen, Ivan Moudov and ZimmerFrei focus on the southeastern European border between Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, while Zorka Wollny works in Český Těšín/Cieszyn – a city divided by the Czech-Polish border. As performative acts in the sense of ‘borderscaping,’ the artistic works contribute to renegotiating borders and border narratives in Europe: ‘Borderscapes’ as a method implies “…a shift from a fixed knowledge to a knowledge capable of throwing light on a space of negotiating actors, experiences, and representations (…) and opens a new space of political possibilities (…).” 1
Through the prism of borders, the artistic works engage with questions such as: how can narratives surrounding borders and borderlands be revisited and deconstructed? How are cultural and historical phenomena inscribed in landscapes? How do borderlanders move through borders? What are the cross-contaminations that form European cultural identities and therefore contribute to shaping the perception of its borders?
The site-specific artistic works explore the complex political realities and troubled histories that shape these territories, fostering a deeper understanding and offering diverse perspectives on Europe’s present and possible futures. As part of a network of political and cultural discourses, they grapple with historical events and remnants, local border symbolisms, border infrastructures and the stories of people living in borderlands, as well as those on the move.
1 Chiara Brambilla, Exploring the Critical Potential of the Borderscapes Concept, 2015
The Website
B-Shapes is presented through a dedicated website, designed to reflect the complexity of the research through minimalist graphics and vibrant colors. Broken lines invite visitors to cross from one side of the border to the other. The concept behind the layout is to break the rigid boundaries of the screen, envisioning the site as a map-compass that redefines orientation each time. The page is divided into sections: Timeline, Artists, and Borderlands, which in the homepage float like a compass needles, indicating both the paths already taken and the perspectives yet to be discovered.
This one-page site’s main function is to present projects, events, and the borders area explored through accordion sections, offering an intuitive navigation experience.
The events
Sound Match by Zorka Wollny
Border Zone: Czech Republic-Poland
“How does a border resonate?” Zorka Wollny invites the composer and musician Martin Dytko to a sound match exploring borderscapes in Czechia-Poland. In a co-creative process with residents from Český Těšín/Cieszyn and Ostrava, they delve into narratives surrounding the meanings and materializations of bordering practices as integral to everyday life. The voice- and sound-based research conceives the borderland as a place of encounter, interaction, and clash. The border thus emerges not just as a point where various histories converge, but also as a space that shapes both individual and collective processes of identity formation and belonging, continuously transforming, contesting, and subverting the socio-political order. As the concept of Europe and the European Project undergoes transformation, it becomes vital that diverse voices shape their emerging meanings. What futures can be imagined from here?
The performative concerts take place on October 2–3, 2024, at the former synagogue in Český Těšín, as part of the city’s 33rd International Theatre Festival Without Borders, and at the Krytyka Polityczna Center in Cieszyn. These performances feature in a video work by the artist that introduces the participants, provides insights into the production process, and further explores questions surrounding bordering practices between Czechia and Poland.
For the event, a booklet was designed that invites reflection on the role and position of the border through its visual elements, paralleling the artist’s performance and research.
Through the white spaces on the page and the folds of the paper, the boundaries between the languages of the narratives grow closer. Thin dotted lines traverse the pages, inviting the reader to fold them, thus creating a dialogue between the three languages—Polish, Czech, and English. In terms of layout, the texts are carefully aligned to occupy the same number of lines, even as they employ different typefaces and languages, allowing them to mirror one another across the pages. This pursuit of harmony creates a space for mutual understanding, depicting a border that continually serves as a point of connection.
Year
2023 – ongoing
