'Human Territoriality’ is a powerful and timely series by Swiss artist Roger Eberhard.
The work captures “places where borders used to run through. Borders that don’t exist there anymore”, questioning the meaning of these impermanent demarcations in a time of mass migration and rising nationalism.
The series feels even more poignant and relevant today, with international borders closed and the concept of ‘inside vs outside’ intensely magnified.
Roger’s most recent project ‘Human Territoriality’ captures former borders across the world, lines that have shifted, completely vanished or that are disputed and challenged today. He visited 42 locations over 3.5 years.
“Borders are to be seen first and foremost as a means of separation. As a division between two sides, and as a definition of “here” and “there”... And, no matter all claims to permanence, there is nothing quite as mutable. It is indeed ironic that so many people [...] harbour such a sense of pride and protectionism with regard to their borders, even though these are fictitious entities in constant flux [...]”
_ ROGER EBERHARD
“I started this body of work with the intention to show the fluidity and impermanence of the political borders today.”
_ ROGER EBERHARD
“The locked borders across the world due to the outbreak of the corona virus made many people realize that borders and the policies concerning them are never quite set in stone. [...] This current situation, besides all the hardship and suffering, also sheds light on the fugacity of political borders.”
_ ROGER EBERHARD
“A line in the sand is not always a limit, as well as a border is not always a line in the sand. A line is geometry, a border is interpretation.”
_ HENK VAN HOUTUM
Roger Eberhard, ‘Human Territoriality’,
published by Edition Patrick Frey, 2020
