#blueborder

Summer in Malia is a rite of passage for teens and twenty-somethings from across Europe. Each year, thousands descend on the seaside resort on Crete’s northern coast. They come in search of sun and sex, of course, and pass their time roasting on sun loungers, listening to europop, drinking cheap alcohol and, all too often, making trips to the emergency room.

But just a short drive away, on the other side of the nearby mountains, which rise majestically out of the Aegean Sea, young Cretans are living a very different existence. Their rites of passage have changed little over the centuries — and there isn’t a Jägerbomb in sight. Rather than frolicking on package holidays, many Cretan teenagers still decide to become shepherds, following a path well-trodden by their ancestors; climbing into the mountains with a flock of sheep in tow.

Centuries of tradition Summiting a ridge, you see the Lasithi Plateau stretching out like a big patchwork quilt below, surrounded on all sides by thousand-metre mountains. A faded sign welcomes us to “Lasithi Municipality: The birthplace of Zeus and the beginning of Europe.” According to mythology, Dikteon Andron, a sprawling cave lined with stalactites on the edge of the plateau, is where the king of the ancient Greek gods was born. This is, after all, the land where the Minoans arrived from Africa 5,000 years ago and rose to become Europe’s first advanced civilisation during the Bronze Age, projecting their military, naval and commercial power across the Mediterranean.

We have already told about the collaboration between our project and the Austrian media outlet Metropole. Against this background, we are happy to introduce you to one of Metropole’s voices and faces: Benjamin Wolf (Managing Editor). What are his insights regarding #blueborder? Are there any similarities between the 5 islands portrayed in the cross-border project by Cafébabel and Austria? Enjoy the reading!

Metropole has an innate feature: being the voice of international folks in Vienna and Austria, a country that lies in the heart of Europe. Bearing that in mind, what might be the blue border surrounding Austria? Are there any specific challenges or even barriers that both Austrian and internationals – be they Europeans or not – face or struggle with?

Austria is a landlocked country, which tends to make it more conservative in outlook. Both the language barriers around the country and the mountains with their deep valleys can be blue borders – they pose a challenge and a hurdle to understanding, but they also permit a great diversity of cultures, views, dialects, cuisines and ways of life to develop. And this exchange, if it happens, is incredibly fruitful. Vienna in particular has been at the center of such exchange for centuries and is now once again. 

To what extent might there be any connection between Vienna, and Austria in general, and the five islands portrayed in #blueborder - perhaps regarding any particular matters that are present in the Austrian political discourse? 

Personally, I felt the strongest connection to Austria with Crete. The story of shepherds who try to keep centuries-old communities and trades alive in a modern world chimes so strongly with the topics we’ve been seeing and discussing for decades now in many small countryside villages and Alpine valleys. That having said, all the stories spoke to me about one thing at the center – what does it mean to be “European,” where do we fit and what is our identity made up of? For Austria, at the heart of the continent and a small country in the midst of a multi-ethnic, multicultural and multilingual Central Europe, this question is just as relevant as for all those islands. 

This is one of the reasons why we started the “Home is where the Herz is” project. Starting in September, we will give a voice to the 10 largest communities in Austria with roots abroad. Check out metropole.at/herz and stay tuned!

Thanks, Benjamin!

Hélène Pillon, local coordinator in Marseille, is a nomadic journalist who moved to Marseille 4 years ago in order to work on audiovisual projects with young people and prisoners. For the last 5 years, she has been collaborating with Cafébabel and various British and French magazines. She is currently developing a participative web-radio in the northern districts of Marseille.

Barbara Braun, facilitator. “I like to take new challenges and work on projects which connect to real life in the field. Born and raised in Austria, I have worked in marketing and communication in different countries and companies. A few years ago, I settled with my multinational family in the South of France and specialized in sustainable development and tourism.”

What does #blueborder represent for you?

Hélène: A great cross-border journalism project. An opportunity for young photographers and journalists from different countries to work together and discover and document the life, struggles and hopes on Mediterranean islands. And also the will to share the stories they brought back from these territories with a general audience, meaning not only Cafebabel’s readers or photo lovers, but also the inhabitants of the different European neighboroods where the exhibition and workshops will take place.

Barbara: I have crossed the Mediterranean Sea many times and learned a lot about the different cultures around it. It looks like a beautiful blue border when you fly across it, but there is so much more going on there.

Unfortunately we had to officially cancel the vernissage in Marseille. It would be nice however to know what were your expectations about the project - after all, #blueborder is just "raising anchor" online.

Hélène: Obviously to read good stories illustrated with beautiful pictures that inspire me, make me think. I was really looking forward to transforming the Centre Social Bernard Du Bois – a place where people come to seek advice, to bring their kids, to meet, to do activities together, to discuss, etc. - into a nice exhibition hall and seeing the pictures in big format hung on its walls. Unfortunatly it only lasted one day, but it was still nice. And I wanted to provide the inhabitants and youth of Belsunce - the district where the exhibition is happening - with interesting and useful workshops. It won't be the case here as everything was cancelled, but hopefully it will happen in other cities later on.

Barbara:  I’m really excited about this project. I was so much looking forward to meeting the photographers and writers in Marseille, doing the workshops, etc. and really hope that we can catch up with this later or during a follow-up projet. The Corona-Crisis has made borders an even more burning subject we will have to deal with. So, check out the #blueborder website, it's a great journey with insights on people and landscapes along this blue border where cultures meet and have to learn to live together.

Are there any specific societal issues going on in Marseille, first city that hosted #blueborder exhibition?

Hélène: Too many to be sum up in one short answer: housing, poverty, gentrification, inclusion, unemployment, shitty governance... Marseille is a very diverse city with a strong link with the Mediterranean, and I think here we can relate to most of the topics tackled by the Blueborder reports.

Barbara: Marseille is a melting pot, a city turned towards the sea. There are many societal issues linked to migration and employment, like in any other big city. But I feel there is something special about Marseille: it’s a noisy city in constant movement, but the sea seems to cool it all down. It’s a seaside town with a permanent coming and going where everything seems possible.

What are your wishes about the project, as it is gradually unfolding through the published website?

Hélène: I hope people in Marseille and in Europe will be as curious as I am to learn more about the Mediterranean islands and the lives of their inhabitants and check our beautiful website.

(English below)

Il y a deux semaines, le 13 mars, nous aurions dû organiser le vernissage du projet #blueborder à Marseille avec nos journalistes et photographes, pour lancer l'exposition itinérante et le  nouveau site web avec tous les reportages et photos. Malheureusement, comme un premier train de mesures a dû être mis en place par les gouvernements européens en raison de l'épidémie de #coronavirus, l'événement a été officiellement annulé. Le Centre social Bernard Du Bois, qui accueillait l'exposition, a confirmé cette annulation, tout en nous faisant savoir qu'il était possible d'accueillir les visiteurs qui avaient encore envie de voir les photos exposées. Nous sommes maintenant heureux de partager quelques instantanés de cette soirée puisque notre coordinatrice locale Hélène Pillon, ainsi que quelques visiteurs, ont eu la chance d'être là et d'apprécier le travail extraordinaire de nos équipes transfrontalières. La seconde étape de cette exposition itinérante, Palerme, prévu initialement en avril, a également sûe être annulée. Nous nous adapterons à la situation sanitaire pour les événements suivants à Chemnitz (Mai) et Bruxelles (Juin).

N'hésitez pas à apprécier les photos ici ! https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.153913459414774&type=3

***

ENG - A couple of weeks ago, on 13th March, we were supposed to have the #blueborder vernissage in Marseille with our journalists and photographers, launching the itinerant exhibition and the brand new website with all the stories and photos. Unfortunately, as a first package of measures had to be set up by the European governments due to the #coronavirus outbreak, the event was officially cancelled and the participants had to stay at home. The hosting venue Centre Social Bernard Du Bois did confirm that, while letting us know that it was possible to welcome visitors who still felt like having a look at the exhibited photos. We're now happy to share some snapshots of that evening as our local coordinator Hélène Pillon, together with some visitors, had the chance to be there and enjoy the amazing work of our cross-border teams. The second step of the initinerant exhibition, Palermo, originally planned for April, has to be cancelled too. We will adapt to the situation for the organisation of the next events in Chemnitz (Mai) and Bruxelles (June).

Cecilia Butini is an Italian freelance journalist currently based in Berlin. She has covered migration issues, human rights, politics and the environment for a variety of English-language publications including Foreign Policy, Coda Story, The Guardian and Euronews. She has also worked for AFP and the Italian newspaper La Stampa, and has collaborated with PBS Frontline on a cross-border documentary production. She is passionate about showing the human angle of news stories and is a strong believer in the power of multimedia storytelling to better connect with audiences. She is an alumna of Columbia Journalism School in New York.

What does #blueborder represent for you?

#blueborder is a great idea to bring together stories about different places that people wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to see and and think about. At this time of great talking about the future of Europe, I find it crucial for media makers to dig deeper into issues and places that show what it’s really like to live in Europe – not only in big cities but at the borders, too.

What were your expectations before starting the project?

I expected that we would be able to find local stories with a universal meaning, and we did, which was great.

In the last years, Cafébabel has promoted different cross-border editorial projects: journalists and photographers coming from diverse countries to work and collaborate together. Have you ever experienced this professional method before or did #blueborder give you the first chance to do so? How was, overall, your cooperative undertaking?

I did work in international reporting teams before. The most exciting part is having the chance to share skills and knowledge with other media makers who may previously have had very different experiences. Travelling in a team and organizing the logistics is also an important career-building moment for young journalists, and it’s great to share the experience with like-minded people. It helps cement your vision and soothes the uncertainty and loneliness of working alone.

What are your wishes about your project, as it gradually unfolds and will soon see the light?

Ksenia Les is a Russian documentary photographer and storyteller. Having moved to Germany, she has had the opportunity to see her former home and its people’s mentality from a different perspective. She mainly works on stories about socio-political issues in Eastern European countries. She also focuses on topics concerning identity transformation. Her work has been published in The Washington Post, NZZ, News Deeply, Taz, Spiegel online and others. https://www.kseniales.com/

What does #blueborder represent for you?

Coming from Russia myself, the word “border” has a special meaning for me. The blueborder reminds me that although Europe is kind of united and free, there are still borders in the minds of people.

What were your expectations before starting the project?

I never worked in Sicily and I was excited to question the stereotypes from within, to look on the topic of mafia from the perspective of local journalists who put themselves in dangerous situations for very little money just to tell their truth.

In the last years, Cafébabel has promoted different cross-border editorial projects: journalists and photographers coming from diverse countries to work and collaborate together. Have you ever experienced this professional method before or did #blueborder give you the first chance to do so? How was, overall, your cooperative undertaking?

I already have experience in a few other cross-border projects in Europe, but now I was in a new role - I was the one who didn’t speak the local language. So, I completely relied on my partner Cecilia and she did an extremely good job. Finally we got access to a very complicated topic!  

What are your wishes about your project, as it gradually unfolds and will soon see the light?