TOMMASO RADA
BRAGA / PORTUGAL
PROJECT: DOMESTIC BORDER – THE DANUBE ISN’T BLUE
After the Iron Gate the Danube flows slowly, separating Bulgaria from Romania and accomplishing his last effort to reach the Black Sea.
The Danube is not blue anymore, it carries the history and the consequences of the human actions: communist regimes, violent revolutions and, particularly, industrial and agricultural exploitations. The Danube, an astonishing river that shapes the imaginary of the region, is the liquid metaphor of the changes taking place within the continent.
Romania and Bulgaria are the two countries with the highest number of kilometres on the Danube; they have been also the latest countries to join the European Union. But Brussels is far away from here, and Europe is still a place where to go to find a job or a sign of an unfinished road. Bulgaria and Romania are among the poorest countries in Europe. What does it means to be European here?
Behind the riverbanks of the Danube, time is frozen in a moment between the present and the 1989. The monuments celebrating the Communist Empire are still standing taken over by the vegetation. The factories that before the 1989 were running at full regime, are now falling apart, everything that could be re-used or sold has been stolen and now these huge buildings occupy the territory like the ruins of a post-apocalyptic time.
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