CONFINI
by Pietro Freddi
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The project consists of two video installations that investigate the theme of borders and contemporary migration, exploring the human drama through data, testimonies, and a visual-audio rhythm.
Map of Losses
A map of the world gradually comes to life, indicating the places where, from 2014 to 2025, thousands of migrants lost their lives attempting to cross geographical and political borders: the Mediterranean, the border between Mexico and the United States, the Sahara Desert, the Bay of Bengal, and others. Each marked point is accompanied by a sheet providing the incident data: date, location, number of victims, origin, and destination. The installation builds a visual archive of the migratory tragedy, a geography of silence that grows over time. A minimal soundtrack acts as a visual metronome: it marks the passage of time and the progressive appearance of data on the map, accentuating the inexorable and repetitive nature of the news.
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Overlapping Voices
In this second installation, the testimonies of surviving migrants appear on the screen in text form. Each sentence is repeated multiple times in random positions, forming visual blocks—abstract paintings composed of overlapping words. The result is a layering of memories that lose their individuality to merge into a collective presence, dense and visually powerful. The minimal sound does not accompany but structures: it punctuates the appearance and reiteration of the words, guiding the rhythm with which the painting forms and expands, like a mechanical breath or a regular heartbeat.
AUDIO ON/OFF
Data
The data used in the "Map of Losses" were extracted from:
"IOM's Missing Migrants Project" - https://missingmigrants.iom.int
(Please note that not all items are present in the "Map of Loses" installation)
Testimonies
The testimonies appearing in "Overlapping Voices" are from:
- Interviews conducted by the author as part of "Sabbia" social theater project (created by Riccardo Vannuccini - Artestudio), with asylum seekers at the Castelnuovo di Porto reception center (CARA)
- Interviews conducted aboard the Geo Barents (search and rescue vessel - Doctors Without Borders) - https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/stories-survival-mediterranean-migration-route
- Interviews conducted aboard the Life Support (search and rescue vessel - Emergency) - https://www.emergency.it/storie-migranti-dalla-life-support/
The author used MAX software (Cylcing'74) to program the audio/visual processing of the data and testimonies