Georgia(ns) - A border in my backyard
Samachablo (more known by international community as South Ossetia) is a territory officially part of Georgia but having seceded and declared its independence with the support of Russia. After 2008 and the Russian invasion of Georgia, the Russian authorities officially recognised South Ossetia as an independent State.
Following this, Russian border guards became responsible of the « border » of the self-proclaimed State. In the years after, they slowly started to build this border which until this moment was invisible and porous. The process is still ongoing. Regularly, in a Georgian village some Russian border guards appear in the middle of a field or a garden and start installing hundreds of meters of barbed wires, monitoring towers, control systems and panels indicating the border.
Meanwhile Georgian authorities are not moving. Why ? Some would say that the souvenir of 2008 is still warm, "Might is right." Some would mention a globally pro-Russian attitude of the current government.
So, little by little, the border is built. In addition of the illegality of the process, the Russian border guards cut off parts of Georgian villages, deprive the populations of their access to forests, pastures, agricultural lands, irrigation systems, cemeteries, churches, thus disrupting the economy and the life of already fragile regions.
And where the line is yet not built the threat is clear : cross the invisible line and you'll be arrested.
A project with Clément Girardot (journalist), Tamar Kalandadze (translation, production) and the kids from Chorchana, Perevi, Nikozi, Kurvaleti (maps)
With the support of the “Soutien à la photographie documentaire contemporaine” Grant from the Centre National des Arts Plastiques
