Since the creation of the European Union (EU) one of the goals has been the unification of different countries belonging to the EU and the abolishment of the frontiers between these countries. The Schengen treaty stipulated in 1985 has aimed to gradually create an EU without borders, and in 1990 the Schengen Agreement finally eliminated the borders between European countries, allowing the free movement of people across several European countries and the abolition of internal border controls. In the last decade separatist movements grew up all across Europe, the economical differences between the European countries increased, the foreign politics aren’t common for all the countries, and in a period in which Europe should consolidate its union new obstacles and challenges have appeared. The domestic borders of Europe, now – after the Schengen Treaty and with the European unification — are gone. Just mountains, rivers and imaginary historical lines, are what is left: a liquid frontier between apparently distinct countries.
The rivers, mountains and history trapped in these places define the communities, the interaction and the contact between the people of two neighbouring countries, where the territory and the communities shape reciprocally around a specific space – physical, human and cultural – that get dissolved in the same rivers and mountain places that divide them. Empty of its political value, from a strange limbo made of controls and checkpoints, the domestic borders became just a line on a map. The emptiness of the frontier, that should be filled with new life and dynamics after the unification, get reflected in the territory, and while the world around is changing, on the border the space is assuming a proper physiognomy. “Domestic Borders” became a route where each photo is a stop on the way, not searching for answers but interrogating the social reality, the relations between habitants, the territory and the meaning of Europe today. “Domestic Borders” is a dystopian portrait of the relationships between and across the borders, showing the challenges of living in a unique space.
Tommaso Rada is an Italian photographer currently living in São Paulo, Brasil. He is a documentary photographer working on socio-economic issues. His projects describe society, aiming to question rather than look for answers. His work has been published in several magazines and newspapers such as The Financial Times, Der Spiegel, Monocle, Popoli, The Washington Post and Forbes Brazil. He recently collaborated with Unicef Mozambique, Comunità di Sant’Egidio and Habitat for Humanity Portugal.