Lavinia Parlamenti & Manfredi Pantanella – An Atlas of Countries that Don’t Exist « burn magazine

Lavinia Parlamenti & Manfredi Pantanella – An Atlas of Countries that Don’t Exist

Lavinia Parlamenti & Manfredi Pantanella An Atlas of Countries that Don’t Exist [ EPF 2019 FINALIST ] Political charts of the world are very fluid realities. Countries are created and cou…

via burn magazine: https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2019/12/lavinia-parlamenti-manfredi-pantanella-an-atlas-of-countries-that-dont-exist/

Our “Atlas of Countries that Don’t Exist” is an imaginary journey in real territories that uses documentary photography to show the paradox of those portions of the world that self-declared their independence but – for different reasons – haven’t been recognized by the UN. By documenting and conceptualizing some aspects of the reality of these places,our work in progress aims at stimulating a reflection on the subject of personal and national identity, at a time in which this seems to us more than necessary. The physical place where one is born, where one is guarded after death, the family; these are elements defining our personal identity. On the other hand, the culture of a place (arts, monuments, traditions, food), its history and politics, the fauna and the flora, make up the identity of a “Nation”. That’s why we are dealing with tracing these elements in the 12 territories we have chosen to portray: Transnistria, North Cyprus, Catalunya, Republic of Artsakh, Isle of Man, Iraqi Kurdistan, Greenland, Somaliland, Sahrawi, Lakota, Taiwan and Ryukyu. Having already visited the first 3 territories, the Burn Emerging Fund would allow to carry on our research including the maximum variety of global situations into the Atlas, which we hope will take the form of a book and an interactive exhibition.