Photo exhibition on Europe’s eastern border and NATO opens in Narva
An international photo exhibition, “All Quiet on the Eastern Border,” has opened at the Narva College of the University of Tartu in Narva, Estonia. It is dedicated to the eastern border of Europe and NATO and examines it through historical, cultural and psychological lenses, ERR News reports.
Photographers’ view of border regions
Photographers from various countries have long been interested in NATO’s external borders, and following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — an aggressor state — this attention has intensified. Unlike news reporters, artists have more time to explore the subject in greater depth and focus on the psychological and emotional perception of the border.
Italian photographer and artist Luca Berti has been working in southeastern Estonia for several years, photographing people and landscapes in the historical region of Setomaa. This territory lies on both sides of Estonia’s border with the Russian Federation, which is also the external border of the EU and NATO.
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Berti described this border as distinctive, dramatic and sad, particularly because of the division of Setomaa. The photographer hopes to document the lives of the Seto people living on the other side of the border in order to portray their lives and culture more fully.
Ida-Viru County as a grey zone
French photographer Raphaël Gianelli-Meriano has spent several years exploring the sense of the border among residents and the industrial heritage of Ida-Viru County. His project is called “The Grey Zone of Ida-Viru County” and addresses the ambiguity of the border region, which, in the author’s view, cannot be perceived solely in black-and-white terms.
Exhibition curator Kaisa Eiche noted that the display combines the photographers’ outside perspective, her own perspective as an Estonian curator, and the large local Russian community. The exhibition will run at the Narva College of the University of Tartu until December.
