Transits, passages. Passages, borders. Borders, transits. The circle closes and it is a very ancient circle, which brings together the atavistic migration of mankind with respect to the self-determination of populations within a territory, in some way seizing a geography, constructing a proprietary map on a common good.

If transit was for centuries linked to expansionist aims where land, read food and taxes, and power (temporal or linked to religion) were the drivers of conflict, at least since the Second World War to the present – after the opposition in blocs – asymmetrical wars arise not over food, but over raw materials, strategies of influence and the arrangement of new logistics markets. Power and hoarding are sold as wars of freedom and exports of democracy, which seems to be a unique characteristic of the Western world.

Power corrodes and progress gallops. The expansion of a group of countries that have united within the acronym Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) has experienced an enlargement in recent years that has seen 22 other requests from other countries and Egypt, the Arab Emirates, Iran and Ethiopia joined the group. On the table is the de-dollarisation of the economy, a different conception of power relations, the end of routes linked to a past, even a colonial past. 

It is a new step, very definite, but still little perceived, in a particularly weak era of the former superpowers and their uncharismatic and/or bloodthirsty leaders.

From the sky comes rain and scorching heat that will overwhelm us because we have failed to make a reasoned transit to rescue temperatures. Written like this, reality looks more like a script from a tragic horror film, where no hero can escape the inevitable fate.

In 2024, it is still possible for the nation-state to block the prohibition of border crossing, in the name of free and complete transit, in accepting that passage is inevitable and must be governed, not suffered. Without forgetting that there exists a humanity, the majority, of women and men who want to transition into a new era, but who are periodically disappointed by the 1% in charge. In this scenario we, billions of humans, also transit. With our dreams, miseries and happiness. There is a street in Milan where an association operates that helps undocumented migrants. It is called Via dei Transiti. It happened like this, by chance, but sometimes they seem like signs of destiny, which leave an often salvific fuse lit, that of hope.

Angelo Miotto [journalist, documentary filmmaker, podcaster. Founder and director of Q Code Mag].

PROGRAM

8 + 9 marzo c/o ZONA K
Faustin Linyekula / Mamu Tshi (RDC/CH)

22 + 23 marzo c/o ZONA K
Lina Majdalanie e Rabih Mroué (LB/GE)

24 marzo c/o ZONA K
Lina Majdalanie e Rabih Mroué (LB/GE)

4 + 5 aprile c/o ZONA K
Zoë Demoustier / Ultima Vez (BE)

16 + 17 maggio c/o ZONA K
Ant Hampton (GB/CH)

Photo by Cesura – Design Neo Studio by Leonardo Mazzi