LINIA, a project signed by VICE VERSA Association, is a photographic installation exploring and documenting the stories, and the collective mindset of the territories near one of the most fragile, yet rigid lines in today’s context: the line separating NATO from non-NATO nations. The project, initiated by Dorin Ștefan Adam and Laurian Ghinițoiu, is on display at the Timișoara train station, in Romania, and it represents one of the main exhibitions of the Timișoara 2022 Architecture Biennale, which ran from 23 September to 23 October 2022. The schedule of LINIA has been extended however to remain open to the public until April 23.
Up until the start of the war in Ukraine, the NATO border seemed like an invisible concept, but once the crisis started, this line gained new meanings, defining which territories are safe and which are not. The project aims to explore the character of the territories surrounding this line, territories that would have been almost undistinguishable, were it not for the firmness of the line that separates them. The photographs show instances of the life of neighbors, fleeting moments of everyday life, mundane and familiar, yet in sharp contrast to the ongoing crisis unfolding at a larger scale.
The exhibition contains 40 photographs taken by Laurian Ghinițoiu by traveling along the 3500 kilometers border over the course of 18 days, starting on the 146th day after the start of the war. The documentation follows the Eastern border of NATO territory from North to South, exposing instances of everyday life overlapped with the unexpected situation brought forth by the onset of war. This represents a pilot episode, as the project is to be extended in 2023 across the entire whole East-West border of NATO, from Norway to Georgia.
The location of the exhibition helps expand its discourse. The train station represents a point of connectivity and an entry point in the city, but on a smaller scale, the railway is also a border, limiting the expansion of the urban tissue. The location was chosen to emphasize that lines are not just separating elements, signifying distinction, they are also used to represent connections possible despite the vast distances between the endpoints. Train stations represent such points, connected over broad territories through a web of lines and railways. The western city of Timisoara is connected to the eastern border through such a railway, formerly known as “the hunger train,” for the long 17 hours it took to cross the country.
The exhibition is developed as part of Beta, the Architecture Biennial of Timișoara. The Beta 2022 event presented several events, conferences, guided tours, and exhibitions exploring the theme “The City as Common Good”. The subject of borders, lines, and loopholes was a recurring part in the approach of the participants, as further exemplified by the main exhibition of the event, titled “Another Breach in the Wall”. Through various interventions in the city, it explored notions such as micronations and the small and subversive actions and strategies that can change urban spaces by questioning the laws, rules, and codes according to which cities are produced and inhabited.
