Voicing Borders installation transmits the struggles of Georgia’s territory

On the eastern border of Europe, across the country of Georgia, a marching razor-wire fence marks the territory occupied by Russia since its invasion in 2008. Designer Irakli Sabekia tells the harsh story through Voicing Borders.

Being born in a city that now lies behind the occupation line, Irakli Sabekia experienced the transformation of the territory and the destructive toll it brings to local communities.

Tracing and dividing the country, the razor wire fence, continues to crawl further into Georgia, displaying clear evidence of the occupation and hiding the attempt to clear the proof of settlements and communities in the regions, as well as its correlated violations of human rights and international law.

“Behind the razor wire fence, Georgian villages are deliberately burned down, demolished, and then even the ruins completely removed from the area,” sais Sabekia.

Voicing borders is a two-part installation presented during the Dutch Design Week 2019 as, where one interactive projection documents the destroyed and erased villages. The viewer can interact with the projection by casting a shadow onto it, thus revealing the structures and locations eradicated from the map.

The second part of the installation revolves around the barbed-wire border fence. Purposely used to separate and negate the local story, Irakli transformed this metal intrusive border into an antenna, transmitting data in morse code with the coordinates and names of the erased villages in the provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.