Reena Saini Kallat

Pattern Recognition investigates connections within a world fragmented by borders, revealing how geopolitical constraints contribute to constructing a hierarchy of mobility. The diptych unfolds, on the one hand, through a reinterpretation of the Snellen eye chart: here, the letters are replaced by the silhouettes of countries arranged according to the ranking of the Henley Passport Index (2022), which measures freedom of movement on a global scale. Countries that enjoy greater mobility – including Italy – occupy the apex of the pyramid. In this way, the artist offers a striking image of the intersection between discrimination and mobility, outlining the portrait of a deeply unequal world.
On the other hand, twenty-eight digital collages complete the work: each represents a country through a selection of related news items, referring, among other topics, to the war in Ukraine, the Rohingya refugee crisis, the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the effects of climate change — cosmopolitan phenomena that, unlike borders, do not recognize territorial limits. Reena Saini Kallat highlights the privileges associated with certain citizenships and their repercussions in everyday life, exposing the apparent neutrality of a system that, beyond walls and barbed wire, reveals invisible and structural barriers that vary depending on who attempts to cross them. Pattern Recognition thus emerges as a synthesis of our present: a world at once divided and interconnected.