Across the Border, 2010 – ongoing

Filippo MinelliAcross the Border (2010 – ongoing), mixed media, performance

Section: Out of Control Room

Across the Border is a participatory project discussing migration and identity in the age of big data. Thirty flags were commissioned to individuals living in nations linked to each other by the migration of people, as documented in the Palermo Atlas, and by the flux of digital information via the internet’s infrastructure of underwater cables coming to and leaving from Sicily. Various performers have been commissioned to design and craft a flag locally displaying a word that in their view puts the site of the performance into relation with a different place of the world, sharing similarities with it. Flags are therefore used as a tool to connect stories, people and places rather than to define nations and their populations.
The installation on view on the top floor of Palazzo Ajutamicristo is composed of all the flags collected via the random network of performers and by the photographic documentation of the final performance realised at Palermo’s stadium.