Andrea Masala soutient sa thèse

This PhD dissertation investigates Border Art, understood as an artistic expression and a wider audio-visual sphere produced at, from and about geo-political and conceptual boundaries. More specifically, it questions the position of this artistic field within the well-established phenomenon of “border spectacle”, namely how contemporary border(ing) and migratory phenomena are depicted in dominant narratives and discourses. The main hypothesis is that the international expansion of Border Art - following its 1980s origins in the US/Mexican borderlands - led to significant transformations within its critical and political dimensions. These evolutions are conceptualised through the “border spectacularisation” concept, which simultaneously constitutes a phenomenon, a process, and an interpretative approach. Three analytical levels are adopted in this regard: on the one hand, the rise and development of “border art scenes”; on the other hand, the artistic and spectacular ways in which borders are staged and performed. In addition to this, the thesis proposes an ethnographical investigation on people’s reception of borders and their associated artistic practices. The research thus positions itself at the intersection between contemporary art-history, geography, and border studies, adopting a highly interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological approach. It is based on mixed research methods, including art-historical research, artwork analysis, qualitative interviews and borderscaping experiments. Framed within a wider panorama of Border Art, the principal case-study revolves around the artistic and cultural experiences developed on the Norwegian/Russian boundary, since the 1990s. More in detail, it concerns the peripherical Norwegian border town of Kirkenes, situated at the core of the Barents Region. This borderland’s geopolitical peculiarities are emblematic of the thesis’ central argument: Border Art’s global expansion led it to develop on not-necessarily conflictual and violent borders, consequently facilitating its spectacularised dimension.

Thèse co-dirigée par Paola VALENTI et Anne-Laure AMILHAT SZARY