Borderlands: The Edges of Europe
- Submitting institution
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London Metropolitan University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 31.32
- Type
- Q - Digital or visual media
- Publisher
- -
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2020
- URL
-
https://issuu.com/arts_londonmet/docs/leonardi_borderlands__v3_
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
-
- Research group(s)
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2 - The Centre for Creative Arts, Cultures and Engagement
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This portfolio presents key research insights gathered through the development of Borderlands: The Edges of Europe, a collection of analogue photographs depicting people and places along the borders of the European Union. The project focuses on borders perceived as points of both exchange and collision. Through juxtaposing geographical and political Europe, it creates the first comprehensive portrayal of European identity along the entire land border.
Borderlands interrogates the meaning of European identity within communities that inhabit the edges of Europe.
How does the presence of a physical border impact on the construction of identity?
How does identity relate to ideas of home, belonging, memory and territory?
How is it shaped by current and past events?
What are the commonalities or differences that define cross-border identity?
Grounded in documentary, portrait and landscape photography, Borderlands links ideas of representation in human geography to the practice of identity portrayal through four methods:
- Analogue medium-format photography documenting people and places along the borders;
- Walking in close proximity to the borders using map and compass;
- Collecting narratives of lives through conversations along the borders;
- Collecting maps and conversation records for use in exhibition displays.
The project has been extensively disseminated through group and solo exhibitions in the UK and internationally, as documented in the Dissemination section of this portfolio. The research has been shared with large audiences through talks, interviews, online and printed publications, including a self-authored chapter in Il Dialogo Creativo 2020: Parole Sull’Europa.
Borderlands offers a new perspective on transnational and transcultural identities in liminal territories, depicting communities that are otherwise excluded from mainstream narratives about national identities. The project’s novel approach has informed teaching and research across UK and EU institutions including London Metropolitan University, University of Suffolk, Chester University and European University Institute of Florence.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -