Bordered Miles

…and it strikes her, as she walks, that borders, like hatred, are exaggerated precisely because otherwise they would cease to exist altogether.
Colum McCann

Iman Tajik is a Glasgow based artist and photographer originally from Iran. Borders and the movement of freedom are his key subject matters, influenced by his experience of crossing borders.

The freedom of movement conflicts with geographical borders: country from country, landmass to sea, but also ‘internally’ (city/city, borough/borough). While the right of free movement is universal, power, politics and capitalism are the main contributors to borders being created to serve the interest of the few. Compounded with historic situations in our own country, how can these impairments of basic rights be made more visible and known.

To address these questions, Iman was working on Bordered Miles, supported by a bursary awarded by Glasgow International Festival 2020. He was working with us on two complementary walks: one from Glasgow to Dungavel Removal centre; the other one from the depopulated Cabrach to Huntly, which saw a lot of land flight in the past. This way, he invited us to join him in investigating the idea of borders in order to raise awareness of locations where freedom of movement conflicts with geo-political boundaries today and in the past. Walking has long been used for political action and it can be a powerful artistic gesture with political relevance. The walks draw attention to the movement of bodies as a natural right of any species.

Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Bordered Miles project was suspended. Instead we were running the Under One Sky project with Iman Tajik.

Iman Tajik's website