BritSit IN or OUT that is not the question …
This series of photos made by the artist and photograph Bruno Metra offers a reflexion on identities, national or territorial. He randomly approaches British citizens in the street and invites them to sit down on a chair placed where they were walking. To sit down as a symbol, to talk, to think, to share. The chair is thought to represent the location, the place you come from, the place where you live, the place you’re staying. They are sitting on a chair in British territory and on a geographically European soil.
Do the British think their particular identity might be diluting in the European Community? Aren’t they, de facto, Europeans? Throughout history, states have undergone changes in their borders with endless wars. Empires have lost their huge territories. Lots of people have had different nationalities during their life. As Zigmund Bauman questions, do the Constitution of a State, its laws and civil status constitute an identity? Borders are a consequence of history while the land, immovable, belongs to geography. Is the sea, the water, the only true border between people? Does insularity give the British a special status, a specific identity?
Anyway, the Brit Sit shows British people sitting on a chair placed in the United Kingdom, located in Europe.
visit his website : Bruno Metra
