In/visibility: exploring the representation and agency of borderscapes beyond the seen

Titolo Rivista TERRITORIO
Autori/Curatori Nicoletta Grillo, Luca Gaeta
Anno di pubblicazione 2026 Fascicolo 2024/111
Lingua Inglese Numero pagine 10 P. 154-163 Dimensione file 295 KB
DOI 10.3280/TR2024-111014
Il DOI è il codice a barre della proprietà intellettuale: per saperne di più clicca qui

Qui sotto puoi vedere in anteprima la prima pagina di questo articolo.

Se questo articolo ti interessa, lo puoi acquistare (e scaricare in formato pdf) seguendo le facili indicazioni per acquistare il download credit. Acquista Download Credits per scaricare questo Articolo in formato PDF

Anteprima articolo

FrancoAngeli è membro della Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), associazione indipendente e non profit per facilitare (attraverso i servizi tecnologici implementati da CrossRef.org) l’accesso degli studiosi ai contenuti digitali nelle pubblicazioni professionali e scientifiche.

The article examines how visibility and invisibility intertwine in borderscapes, shaping them as sites of inclusion, exclusion, and negotiation. Drawing on the non-binary concept of ‘in/visibility’, it combines a literature review with ?eldwork on the Swiss Italian border. It examines in/visibility as both an analytical tool for border studies and a strategy in border work, particularly in cross-border dynamics, migration control, and resistance. The study unpacks its role in contrasting scenarios, where in/visibility is instrumental to surveillance and silencing, or counter-representations and self-protection. It argues that deconstructing visual stereotypes and embracing the traces of in/visible practices can open the path to multisensory dimensions that challenge dominant border representations.

L’articolo esamina come visibilità e invisibilità si intrecciano nei paesaggi di confine, plasmandoli come luoghi di inclusione, esclusione e negoziazione. Basandosi sul concetto non binario di ‘in/visibilità’, si combina una rassegna della letteratura con un’analisi sul campo al confine italo-svizzero. Si esamina l’in/visibilità sia come strumento analitico per gli studi di confine sia come strategia usata nel border work, in particolare nelle dinamiche transfrontaliere e legate alle migrazioni. Lo studio analizza il ruolo dell’in/visibilità in scenari contrastanti, mostrandone l’ambivalenza. Si sostiene che decostruire gli stereotipi visivi e abbracciare le tracce di pratiche in/visibili possa aprire la strada a dimensioni multisensoriali che sfidano le rappresentazioni dominanti dei paesaggi di confine.

Parole chiave:paesaggi di confine; in/visibilità; tracce

  1. Agamben G., 1998, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Stanford: Stanford University Press (trans. by Heller-Roazen D.).
  2. Alexander J., 2013, The Dark Side of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press. Amilhat Szary A.L., 2012, «Walls and border art: The politics of art display». Journal of Borderlands Studies, 27, 2: 213-228. DOI: 10.1080/08865655.2012.687216
  3. Anzaldua G., 1987, Borderlands/La Frontera. The New Mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books.
  4. Appadurai A., 1996, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  5. Aru S., 2022, «I had no idea that Europe had internal borders: Migran-ts’ ‘secondary movements’ before the EU internal border regime». Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 40, 7: 1421-1436. DOI: 10.1177/23996544221082383
  6. Barcella P., Sanfilippo M., 2016, «Frontalierato e migrazioni interne». Studi Emigrazione, 53, 202: 319-330.
  7. Barthwal-Datta M., 2023, «On in/visibility». Journal of Critical Southern Studies, 4, 3: 1-14.
  8. Borren M., 2008, «Towards an Arendtian politics of in/visibility, on state refugees and undocumented migrants». Ethical Perspectives, 15, 2: 213-237. DOI: 10.2143/EP.15.2.2032368
  9. Brambilla C., 2014, «Shifting Italy/Libya borderscapes at the interface of EU/Africa borderland: A ‘genealogical’ outlook from the colonial era to post-colonial scenarios». ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 13, 2: 220-245.
  10. Brambilla C., 2015, «Exploring the critical potential of the borderscapes concept». Geopolitics, 20, 1: 14-34.
  11. Crossings. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 83-104. Brambilla C., Pötzsch H., 2017, «In/visibility». In: Schimanski J., Wolfe F. (eds.), Border Aesthetics. Oxford-New York: Berghann Books, 68-89.
  12. Buoli A., 2015, «Borderscaping: Design patterns and practices on/across borderlands». Territorio, 72: 85-94. DOI: 10.3280/TR2015-072014
  13. Buoli A., 2020, «Borderscap-es/-ing: Reading the Moroccan-Spanish bor-derlands constellations». In: Gaeta L., Buoli A. (eds.), Transdisciplinary Views on Boundaries: Towards a New Lexicon. Milan: Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, 21-45.
  14. Caplan J., Torpey J. (eds.), 2002, Documenting Individual Identity: The Development of State Practices in the Modern World. Princeton: Prin-ceton University Press.
  15. Casaglia A., 2020, Nicosia beyond Partition: Complex Geographies of the Divided City. Milan: Unicopli.
  16. Cassidy K., Yuval-Davis N., Wemyss G., 2018, «Debordering and everyday (re)bordering in and of Dover: Post-borderland borderscapes». Political Geography, 66: 171-179.
  17. Codoni G., 2018, Storie di ramina. Vicende, scoperte e incontri cammi-nando lungo il con?ne tra Mendrisiotto e Italia. Pregassona: Fontana Edizioni.
  18. Council of the EU, 2024, «Schengen: Council and European Parliament agree to update EU’s borders code» (press release) www.consilium. europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/02/06/schengen-council-and-european-parliament-agree-to-update-eu-s-borders-code/ (ac-cessed: 2025.2.6).
  19. Derrida J., 2005, Writing and Difference. New York: Routledge (trans. by Bass A.).
  20. Derrida J., Dufourmantelle A., 2000, Of Hospitality. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
  21. Dijstelbloem H., 2021, Borders as Infrastructure: The Technopolitics of Border Control. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
  22. Ferrer-Gallardo X., Albet-Mas A., Espiñeira K., 2015, «The borderscape of Punta Tarifa: Concurrent invisibilisation practices at Europe’s ultimate peninsula». Cultural Geographies, 22, 3: 539–547. DOI: 10.1177/1474474014547336
  23. Finiguerra A., 2022, «Re-imagining mobility: From (in)visibility to mul-tiple processes of making present». Millennium, 51, 1: 261–283. DOI: 10.1177/03058298221131358
  24. Ghirri L., 2017, «A light on the wall». In: Mack M., Scott I. (eds.), The Complete Essays 1973-1991. London: MACK, 223–225.
  25. Giudice C., Giubilaro C., 2015, «Re-imagining the border: Border art as a space of critical imagination and creative resistance». Geopolitics, 20, 1: 79–94. DOI: 10.1080/14650045.2014.896791
  26. Grillo N., 2024, Photography and Invisible Borders: Spaces of Imagination between Switzerland and Italy. Leiden: Brill.
  27. Guilloteau E., 2021, «Borders of representation: Retour amont: le rêve». www.ec-ce.be/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Borders-of-representa-tion_Guilloteau_E.pdf (accessed: 2024.12.30).
  28. Horsti K., 2019, «Temporality in cosmopolitan solidarity: Archival acti-vism and participatory documentary film as mediated witnessing of suffering at Europe’s borders». European Journal of Cultural Studies, 22, 2: 231–244. DOI: 10.1177/1367549418823062
  29. Jacqmin A., 2018, La risposta umanitaria al fenomeno migratorio. Studio etnogra?co di un campo nel Nord d’Italia. PhD thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano.
  30. Khosravi S., 2010, «‘Illegal’ traveller: An auto-ethnography of borders». Basingstoke-New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  31. Lefebvre H., 1974, La production de l’espace. Paris: Anthropos. Lefebvre H., 1981, La présence et l’absence. Paris: Casterman.
  32. Leinonen J., Toivanen M., 2014, «Researching in/visibility in the Nordic context: Theoretical and empirical views». Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 4, 4: 161-167.
  33. Levin M.L., 1993, ed., Modernity and the hegemony of vision. Berkeley-Los Angeles: University of California Press.
  34. Massey D., 2005, For space. London: Sage.
  35. Mazzara F., 2020, Reframing migration: Lampedusa, border spectacle and the aesthetics of subversion. Bristol: Peter Lang.& Federal Studies, 27, 3: 261–281. DOI: 10.1080/13597566.2017.1343723
  36. Mezzadra S., Neilson B., 2012, «Between inclusion and exclusion: On the topology of global space and borders». Theory, Culture & Society, 29, 4-5: 58-75. DOI: 10.1177/0263276412443569
  37. Nail T., 2015, The ?gure of the migrant. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Nail T., 2016, Theory of the border. Oxford-New York: Oxford University Press. OECD, 2024a, OECD Economic surveys: Italy 2024. Paris: OECD Publishing.
  38. OECD, 2024b, OECD Economic surveys: Switzerland 2024. Paris: OECD Publishing.
  39. Paasi A., 1996, Territories, boundaries, and consciousness: The changing geographies of the Finnish-Russian border. Chichester: Wiley.
  40. Pastor-Saberi R., Varga-Linde D., Vicente i Rufí J., Castañer i Vivas M., 2018, «Can variations in the nature of a border modify the landscape? Evaluation of landscape changes in the eastern part of the cross-border Catalan space (1950 – 2009)». Land Use Policy, 76: 365-381.
  41. Pedrozo S., 2017, «Swiss military drones and the border space: A critical study of the surveillance exercised by border guards». Geogra?a Helvetica, 72: 97-107.
  42. Pellander S., Horsti K., 2018, «Visibility in mediated borderscapes: The hunger strike of asylum seekers as an embodiment of border violence». Political Geography, 66: 161-170.
  43. Perera S., 2007, «A pacific zone? (In)security, sovereignty, and stories of the Pacific borderscape». In: Rajaram P.K., Grundy-Warr C. (eds.), Border-scapes: Hidden geographies and politics at territory’s edge. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 201-227.
  44. Plonski S., 2018, «Material footprints: The struggle for borders by Be-douin-Palestinians in Israel». Antipode, 50, 5: 1349-1375.
  45. Porcelli G., 2021, «Cross-border identity as a daily resistance tactic in a time of global health emergency: Gorizia-Nova Gorica go borderless». Contem-porary Social Science, 17, 1: 38-50. Autograph.
  46. Sohn C., Scott J.W., 2020, «Ghost in the Genevan borderscape! On the sym-bolic significance of an ‘invisible’ border». Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 45: 18-32.
  47. Tazzioli M., 2024, «Assembling traces of border violence. Counter-mapping as counter-archiving». Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 0, 0: 1-18 DOI: 10.1177/02637758241303367
  48. Van Houtum H., Eker M., 2015, «BorderScapes: Redesigning the borderland». Territorio 72: 101-107. DOI: 10.3280/TR2015-072016
  49. Van Houtum H., 2019, «The Janus-border of the monad and the nomad: An essay on the philosophy of b/ordering and othering». In: Cooper A., Tinning S. (eds.), Debating and De?ning Borders: Philosophical and Theoretical Perspectives, London: Routledge, 181-194.
  50. Vitale S., Willumeit L. (eds.), 2019, How to secure a country. From border policing via weather forecast to social engineering–A visual study of 21st century statehood. Zürich: Lars Müller Publishers.
  51. Wemyss G., Yuval-Davis N., Cassidy K., 2018, «Beauty and the beast: Everyday bordering and ‘sham marriage’ discourse». Political Geography, 66: 151-160.

Nicoletta Grillo, Luca Gaeta, In/visibility: exploring the representation and agency of borderscapes beyond the seen in "TERRITORIO" 111/2024, pp 154-163, DOI: 10.3280/TR2024-111014