The Little Wall is a photographic series by Federico Torra whose subject is the historical Hadrian’s Wall.
The Hadrian’s Wall was for me a vague memory of the study of History at the primary school: a place in the middle of nowhere, thousands of miles away: both in time then in distance. Searching on the Internet images of the Wall, I feel nowadays disappointed: the images I find represent a geographical place: almost anonymous and lacking of any fascination. It has been for finding my first memory that I decided to go and walk along the Wall, seeing and experiencing it personally.
The Wall is a line that can be drawn on a map: the border becomes tangible once it is built and it transforms back to nature as centuries passes by. The territory around the Wall has changed substantially, loosing its sense of boundary and acquired a different identity. By the time the stones have been moved, reused as building material: even the modern houses seem to recall the basic structure of the fortification. The houses of two thousands years ago question us about what will be a ruin tomorrow and about the sense that the signs of today will have in a future where the code that decrypts our time will be lost.
Text and images © Federico Torra
