Filippo Berta's One by One Project Explores Global Borders Through Performance

Filippo Berta's project One by One, winner of the 2019 Italian Council V Edizione, is a video performance series examining physical and psychological borders. The project began in 2015 amid the Balkan border crisis, with Berta conducting fieldwork along the Hungary-Serbia-Croatia borders. He entered the Zákány railway station on the Hungary-Croatia border, witnessing refugees being loaded onto trains for Germany under police and military control. The performance involves participants pressing each spike of a barbed wire barrier, symbolizing introspective acts against invisible societal boundaries. The project spanned Europe, the US-Mexico border, and the North-South Korea border, aiming to show a single global dividing line. Berta notes that 77 certified borders exist today versus seven before the Berlin Wall fell. The video combines voices into a global choir, leaving the question of resolution open. The project was supported by Nomas Foundation in Rome and GAMeC in Bergamo, concluding in 2021. Berta is represented by Prometeo Gallery in Milan and Lucca.