Betweenlands

Based between Milan and Istanbul, photographer Loris Savino has been recording the aftermath of the Arab Spring in his project Betweenlands, which takes the shape of a blog, and an on-going photographic series. A selection of images of this survey is presented below, and the project can also be seen through 1 December at the Poligon Gallery in Galata, Istanbul.

A professional photographer since 2002, Savino has worked for several years on the Middle East, focusing on the events that have occurred in the countries wasted by ethnic and religious conflicts; he has dedicated particular attention to the individual stories of the migrants who have travelled from North-Africa to Europe. Betweenlands also features video contribution by Marco di Noia.

Betweenlands
The Mediterranean Sea has changed. In the last months it has been shaken by an immense and liberating roar, leaving everybody astonished. Betweenlands tells, through the power of images and video — subtitled by handful of words — the political changes, and their social repercussions, taking place along the two shores of the Mediterranean Sea, shattered by popular riots and spontaneous — though often violent- protests. As if its populations — that we wrongly considered numb — were suddenly infected by a collective hysteria pushing people in the streets; while somebody else is thrown in the sea.

Among migrants in Tunisia and in the chaos of Tahrir Square, in Egypt, there is a new generation that took to the streets. They are more educated, secular and individualistic than the past.

Betweenlands is part of a project born from a trip made in the months of February and March 2011 to these countries, chasing the fall of the Arab regimes. Here they met with the amazing actors of Arab riots and asked them to express on camera their reasons for dissent.

It is the Arab Spring that for many remembers the 1989, the sudden collapse of the wall that separated the two parts of Europe. Suddenly, an order that is believed changeless had instead changed. A similar phenomenon was registered in 1968 too: Paris, Chicago, Prague, Rome, Berlin.

However, a revolt is not enough to make the revolution. That is why the journey continues. After the riots, the series continues, recounting the emergency landing in Lampedusa.