Insularità e portualità come dialettica spaziale tra apertura e chiusura.

Insularity is often interpreted as a model of segregation and isolation. Islands are considered as “closed” spaces. Ports, on the contrary, being the doors between sea and land, are archetypical figures of “openness”. Without doubt, ports have always been vital elements for islands both as gateways and as essential public spaces. Yet, within the open space of insular ports, one can find extremely closed enclaves: small islands within the islands hosting prisons, lazaretos for contagious diseases, centres for the selection of immigrants. Insular places of denied liberty stand right in the middle of the flux of goods and people freely passing through the ports. Ellis Island, within the port of New York, and Isla del Lazareto, in the port of Mahón (Minorca), are historical examples of such places. The relationship between insularity and portuality reproduces, therefore, a complex dialectics between geographic relations and isolation.