Figures
I.1 Portrait from a Swiss police photographic collection of stateless persons arrested and jailed. Carl Durheim, Magdalena Lauber, alias Magdalena Vollmann, Magdalena Einholz, 1852–1853, signature E21#1000/131#20507#99. Salt paper print, 13.5 cm × 17.5 cm 12
1.1 The drawing displays how the Swiss-Italian border is positioned with respect to the geographical elements of the territory, 2022. The main cities are Como (IT), Chiasso (CH), Mendrisio (CH) and Lugano (CH). Pen on paper, 30 cm × 20 cm 40
2.1 Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Census at Bethlehem, 1566. Oil on canvas, 116 cm × 164 cm. Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium 50
2.2–2.3 Allan Sekula, Sketch for a Geography Lesson (1983). Two of nine colour cibachrome photographs (11 in × 14 in each), accompanied by two black and white photographs (18 in × 22 in each) and six text pages with inserted colour illustrations (11 in × 14 in each) 66
3.1 Detail of a map representing the establishment of the boundary line between the State of Milan and the Mendrisio Swiss prefecture, part of the Treaty of Varese. Trattato di Varese, Fondo confini, 16.I.VII.1, 1752, Archivio di Stato del Cantone Ticino 76
3.2 Colonel Vittorio Adami’s study of the Italian border with instructions on the placement of boundary stones, pages 902–903 77
3.3 Detail of a map of 1921 from Colonel Adami’s study of the Italian border for the stretch between Stabio and Bizzarone, displaying the establishment of the boundary line (cruciform line in the drawing), page 922 78
3.4 Detail of Swiss Map Raster 1:1,000,000, Swiss Federal Office of Topography, 2022. The Swiss-Italian boundary line is in magenta. Image cropping by the author 80
3.5 Studio Folder, Italian Limes, 2014. Installation view, 14th International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia 81
3.6 Wisa A. G., Advertising panel for Polus SA, n.d. Wood, tempera, 120 cm × 100 cm. Polus SA 86
3.7 Wisa A. G., Advertising panel for Polus SA, n.d. Oil on canvas, 120 cm × 100 cm. Polus SA 86
3.8 Tobacco workers sigaraie in Brissago Tobacco Factory. Ernesto and Max Büchi, Fabbrica tabacchi, 1923, signature 144.11. Photographic negative, 13 cm × 18 cm. Archivio di Stato di Bellinzona 87
3.9 Still from Maria Iorio, Raphaël Cuomo, Appunti del passaggio, 2014–2016. 43 mins., colour, sound. Italian, with English subtitles 95
4.1 Marco Poloni, Displacement Island, 2006, #68. One of 69 pigment prints, dimensions variable 108
4.2–4.4 Marco Poloni, Displacement Island, 2006, #32, 33, 34. Three of 69 pigment prints, dimensions variable 110
4.5 Marco Poloni, Displacement Island, 2006, #64. One of 69 pigment prints, dimensions variable 114
4.6 Marco Poloni, Displacement Island, 2006, #69. One of 69 pigment prints, dimensions variable 122
6.1 Still from Armin Berner, Dalla Montagna al Piano, 1928. 35 mm film, 1300 meters 249
6.2 Nicoletta Grillo, Lilies of the valley, 2021 255
Plates
Pietre, Foglie, Acque, e Filo Spinato (2017–2019), Nicoletta Grillo
IMG 01 Lavena Ponte Tresa, Italy. August 2018 18
IMG 02 Lavena Ponte Tresa, Italy. August 2018 19
IMG 03 Uggiate Trevano, Italy. February 2017 20
IMG 04 Uggiate Trevano, Italy. February 2020 21
IMG 05 Como, Italy. November 2018 22
IMG 06 Como, Italy. December 2019 23
IMG 07 Erbonne, Italy. August 2018 24
IMG 08 Lanzo d’Intelvi, Italy. November 2019 25
IMG 09 Lanzo d’Intelvi, Italy. November 2018 26
IMG 10 Lanzo d’Intelvi, Italy. November 2018 27
IMG 11 Lanzo d’Intelvi, Italy. August 2018 28
IMG 12 Lanzo d’Intelvi, Italy. August 2018 29
IMG 13 Dogana, Italy. August 2019 30
IMG 14 Dogana, Italy. August 2019 31
Traveling Flowers and Other Stories (2019–2021), Nicoletta Grillo
IMG 15 Balcone d’Italia, panorama of Lake Lugano, 2019 138
IMG 16 On the TILO (Ticino Lombardia) train, 2021 139–140
IMG 17 Sewing stapler in a factory in Mendrisio (image cropped because of privacy agreements), 2021 140–141
IMG 18 Portrait of A., a former smuggler (image cut to protect privacy), 2020 141–142
IMG 19 Woods on the Swiss-Italian border, 2020 143–144
IMG 20 Beginning of the industrial area next to the Swiss-Italian border in Stabio, 2020 144–145
IMG 21 Cameras on a road leading to the Swiss-Italian border, 2020 145–146
IMG 22 Detail of Camiceria Realini shirt factory in Stabio, digital photograph of archival image, ca. 1940s. With permission of Armida Valli 146
IMG 23 Camiceria Realini shirt factory in Stabio, digital photograph of archival image, 1940s ca. With permission of Armida Valli 147
IMG 24 Owl maquette in an aviary of the ethnographic museum in Val Bregaglia, 2019 148–149
IMG 25 Detail of a historical Swiss Airlines poster, digital photograph, 2021 149–150
IMG 26 Handwriting on the wall of the Autosilo Valmulini in Como, a parking building formerly occupied by people on the move, 2020 150–152
IMG 27 Looking over Lugano and the Lake, 2019 152–153
IMG 28 Industrial area next to the Swiss-Italian border in Stabio, 2020 153–154
IMG 29 Inside a brothel at the Swiss-Italian border in Chiasso, 2020 154–156
IMG 30 A mountain cabin along the former smuggling path that connects Erbonne and Scudellate, 2020 156–157
IMG 31 Taranto migration hotspot next to the railway tracks, 2021 157–158
IMG 32 Inside a factory in the border area in Mendrisio (image cropped because of privacy agreements), 2021 158–159
IMG 33 Portrait of S., a cross-border worker, near Clivio customhouse, 2019 159–160
IMG 34 Models for manufacturing men’s shirt collars in a factory in Mendrisio (image cropped because of privacy agreements), 2021 161
IMG 35 A cross-border worker doing housework on a weekend, digital photograph of a screen showing Giorgio Pellegrin’s reportage “Le frontaliere. L’altra metà,” Radio Svizzera Italiana, 06 December 1969 161–163
IMG 36 Contrabbandieri e doganieri [Smugglers and customs officers], digital reproduction of archival image by Christian Schiefer, 1938. Archivio di Stato del Canton Ticino, signature 01344/12 163–165
IMG 37 Tools for textile manufacturing inside a factory in Mendrisio (image cropped because of privacy agreements), 2021 165
IMG 38 A plot overlooking the steel plant next to the Taranto migration hotspot, 2021 166–167
IMG 39 Women shirtmakers marching on strike in Mendrisio, digital photograph from an archival image dated 1941. With permission of Fontana Edizioni, Lugano 167–169
IMG 40 An abandoned spinning mill on a road to the Swiss-Italian border in Valmorea, 2020 169–170
IMG 41 Statue of a worker from the 1920s inside a factory in Stabio (image cropped because of privacy agreements), 2021 170–171
IMG 42 Access to a plot overlooking the steel plant next to the Taranto migration hotspot, 2021 171–173
IMG 43 Women’s strike in Bellinzona, 2021 173–174
IMG 44 Camiceria Realini shirt factory in Stabio, 2020 175–176
IMG 45 Protest against the closure of the border, digital photograph of a screen showing an image of the demonstration organised by people on the move in Como in 2016. (This image is no longer available on the web; it probably comes from ANSA news agency. The colours have been inverted.) 176–178
IMG 46 A path across the Swiss-Italian border next to an abandoned customhouse, 2020 178–180
IMG 47 Empty plot of the former Ticosa silk factory in Como, whose ruins are now occupied by people on the move, 2020 180–181
IMG 48 The Mar Piccolo, gulf of Taranto, 2021 181–182
IMG 49 In a car park that formerly housed a camp for people on the move in Como, 2020 182–183
IMG 50 People on the move on Italian shores, digital photograph of a screen showing the video reportage on Taranto migration hotspot “Hotspot Leaks: (video) dossier alla frontiera di Taranto,” Dinamo Press, 26 June 2017 183–185
IMG 51 The Oceano brothel along the Lugano highway, 2020 185–186
IMG 52 The Taranto migration hotspot and the city’s industrial area seen from a train, 2021 187–188
IMG 53 Tents set up by people on the move in front of the Como San Giovanni railway station in 2016, digital photograph of a screen showing the reportage “Migranti, a Como parte ‘l’alleggerimento,’” Il Fatto Quotidiano, 14 September 2016 189–191
IMG 54 Biking in the woods on the Swiss-Italian border, 2020 191–192
IMG 55 “Non mi avrete mai” [you will never have me], handwritten in the underpass of a Swiss railway station, 2021 192–193
IMG 56 Along the former smuggling path that connects Erbonne and Scudellate, 2020 194–195
IMG 57 Construction sheets wrapped around an abandoned customhouse along the border, 2020 195–196
IMG 58 Mediterranean Sea in the Mar Piccolo, gulf of Taranto, 2021 196–197
IMG 59–60 Fireflies in the woods on a road that leads to the Swiss-Italian border, 2020 197–199