Silent Borders: Living Otherwise
Khevsureti, Caucasus Mountains
Research project, 2020
University of Ferrara
On the lower part of the map, the hemispheres follow changes of the Georgian border in time.
Image by Salome Katamadze
In the 50s, during Communist repressions from both the southern and northern side of the Greater Caucasus, more than 50% of the population was deported from the high mountain settlements, which in consequent years triggered the wide abandonment of the areas. The forcible resettlement had an essential influence on the land governance policies and their traditional use. The cultivated areas were transformed into pasture grazing, causing irreversible erosion and later forming serious landslide issues in the landscape. Khevsureti is one of the areas that drastically suffered from the depopulation that, until today, results in the complete abandonment of most of the villages.
Image by Shota Tsiklauri
Map depicts number of inhabitants and livestock per village with pasture lands, glacers and the routes.
Image by Salome Katamadze
Image by Salome Katamadze
The research offers cyclical strategies for inhabiting abandoned territories without invasive infrastructural intervention or mass tourism approaches by rendering the biggest village, and the nearest to the border, the winter shelter for the whole region’s inhabitants without moving their entire households to the lowlands. Instead, the strategy focuses on punctual infrastructure throughout the territory and includes a step-by-step program for the next 20 years.
Author unknown
Image by Salome Katamadze
The research explores the dynamics of the Soviet migration policy regarding ethnic minorities in the territory of the Caucasus mountains. Starting in the 20th century, the region faced several conflictual events that had visible and invisible consequences on the territory and its inhabitants. The research concentrates on the Russia-Georgian geopolitical borderline and offers a historical, geographical and territorial investigation of the specific fraction between Khevsureti (Georgia) and Chechnya (the Russian Federation).
and infrastructural resources while collocating the study area of Khevsureti.
Image by Salome Katamadze
Image by Salome Katamadze
The characteristics of the inquired region are not merely scarce infrastructure and challenging everyday life conditions but the criticality of being the bordering settlement with an unstable frontier in the middle of the Caucasus mountains. Due to inaccessibility, most of the inhabitants leave the Northern part of the region every winter until the better season, rendering the inhabitation of the place even more crucial for the definition of the state border, where the only physical demarcation is the landscape’s topography.
Author unknown
Pencil on paper.
Image by Salome Katamadze
Image by Salome Katamadze
Silent Borders: Living Otherwise
Khevsureti, Caucasus Mountains
Research project, 2020
University of Ferrara
Image by Salome Katamadze
On the lower part of the map, the hemispheres follow changes of the Georgian border in time.
Image by Salome Katamadze
The research explores the dynamics of the Soviet migration policy regarding ethnic minorities in the territory of the Caucasus mountains. Starting in the 20th century, the region faced several conflictual events that had visible and invisible consequences on the territory and its inhabitants. The research concentrates on the Russia-Georgian geopolitical borderline and offers a historical, geographical and territorial investigation of the specific fraction between Khevsureti (Georgia) and Chechnya (the Russian Federation).
Image by Shota Tsiklauri
In the 50s, during Communist repressions from both the southern and northern side of the Greater Caucasus, more than 50% of the population was deported from the high mountain settlements, which in consequent years triggered the wide abandonment of the areas. The forcible resettlement had an essential influence on the land governance policies and their traditional use. The cultivated areas were transformed into pasture grazing, causing irreversible erosion and later forming serious landslide issues in the landscape. Khevsureti is one of the areas that drastically suffered from the depopulation that, until today, results in the complete abandonment of most of the villages.
The characteristics of the inquired region are not merely scarce infrastructure and challenging everyday life conditions but the criticality of being the bordering settlement with an unstable frontier in the middle of the Caucasus mountains. Due to inaccessibility, most of the inhabitants leave the Northern part of the region every winter until the better season, rendering the inhabitation of the place even more crucial for the definition of the state border, where the only physical demarcation is the landscape’s topography.
Image by Salome Katamadze
The research offers cyclical strategies for inhabiting abandoned territories without invasive infrastructural intervention or mass tourism approaches by rendering the biggest village, and the nearest to the border, the winter shelter for the whole region’s inhabitants without moving their entire households to the lowlands. Instead, the strategy focuses on punctual infrastructure throughout the territory and includes a step-by-step program for the next 20 years.