Rappresentazioni della migrazione e borderwork artistico nello spazio pubblico : l’esperienza del R.E.D. Carpet

This article critically analyses the hegemonic representation of migration in European public discourse, structured around two dominant yet complementary frames: the securitarian-emergency frame, which constructs migration as an “invasion” and a threat to public order, and the humanitarian-victimhood frame, which reduces migrants to passive subjects of compassion. Both frames enact a process of othering and depoliticisation, systematically obscuring migrant agency, complex subjectivities, and the structural causes of human mobility. In response to this representational and epistemological impasse, the study examines the R.E.D. (Reframing the European Dream) Carpet project as a methodological intervention. Through a process of artistic co-creation involving an intercultural theatre company and a visual artist, interviews with migrants, frontline workers, and law enforcement officers were transposed into an interactive public installation: a 13-metre red carpet that, via embedded QR codes, provides access to a constellation of performative video clips and symbolic illustrations. A multi-layered analysis reveals how the device operates as a form of critical borderwork, deconstructing hegemonic representations across three interconnected levels: the semiotic-narrative, by restoring polyphonic voices and complex intentionality; the spatial-material level, by repurposing public space as a site for reflexive encounter; and the phenomenological level, by generating cognitive and empathetic shifts in its audiences. The findings underscore that the strategic convergence of participatory research and critical artistic practice offers a viable pathway not merely to critique dominant narratives, but to materially co-construct alternative public spheres where plural citizenship can be symbolically reimagined.