Blur seeks to apprehend and convey the complexity of everyday life in the countries surrounding the Adriatic— a region that has undergone profound transformations throughout history, marked by a past of belligerence, including the world wars of the 20th century and the last war to take place in Europe before the new millennium.

Blur aims to illustrate how the constant shifts in borders make them elusive—they are politically defined, but not always real. To those who do not belong, who are outsiders to the strong sense of identity that still pervades the region, it is impossible to perceive the intermingling brought about by crossings over the years, the blend of destinies that shape the peoples of this territory. The differences are superficial and artificial.

Blur explores this unconsciously shared identity (at least in cultural habits), the confusion between political borders and similarities among peoples, and the challenge of establishing an identity that is not, in some way, common to all. It also addresses the uncertainty of the future—between integration and fragmentation in migrations, resistance to difference, the emphasis placed on what divides rather than unites, and how the once-ideal European unity has now faded.

(*) Blur is a term borrowed from Design and Crime by Hal Foster, where he uses it to describe the dissolution of boundaries—between disciplines and movements—as one of the defining characteristics of the early 21st century.

2016-2018

— Lara Jacinto