The Lines We Draw – The Book

Existing on the margins of the global political scene are countries whose independence has not been recognized by the international community.

Whether the have a national anthem, an official language, a currency or their own government, each of those countries has elements characteristic of a nation state. And yet, institutionally speaking, they are not able to exist as one.

What is it that makes a country and its people exist or not?

While the UNPO (Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation), based in Brussels, represents almost forty unrecognized nations, we have endeavored in ‘The Lines We Draw’ to explore five of these countries dispersed in various parts of the world : The Moldavian Republic of Pridnestrovie (PMR, mostly known in the West as Transnistria), The Republic of Catalonia, The Republic of Artsakh, The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

This project centers its research around the physical, historical, cultural and political realities through which these countries and their inhabitants compose their personal and national identities. On the one hand, it investigates the instances that contribute to the formation of personal identity: the place and the way in which we come into the world, the way we are preserved after death, the first and last names that accompany us throughout our life, our family, the celebration of rites of passage. On the other hand, it explores all the elements at the foundation of these countries’ national identities: the local territory, the fauna and flora, the countries’ historical, administrative and cultural sites, and eminent personalities.

In the book, designed by Ania Nalecka-Milach (https://nalecka.com/), the different geographical contexts and their acts of identity-making are not kept separate but put in dialogue with each other in an attempt to tell a story that goes beyond the individual experience of the different territories. The Lines We Draw breaks the lines imposed by authorities (both official and unofficial) to propose others and discuss the ephemeral role of established codes and the identities that resist beyond them.

This project is conceived and realised together with Manfredi Pantanella.