Permanent Waiting Room: Artworks, Artists, Roundtablesfilm and video | photography | performance | roundtables | voice of the people
Borderline (AT) Immigration issues between Mexico and the U.S., focusing on personal motivations and strategies for survival. In June I went to Tijuana to see the border between the US and Mexico. By chance there was a person who had been waiting for three weeks for the right moment to cross the border. He was open to talk to me and told me about his past life in the US and his present life in Tijuana. The final presentation of this interview is shown from two monitors: on the first monitor the Mexican guy is talking and on the second is shown the view of the border and the drug addicted people. Songül Boyraz (hoell-boyraz@utanet.at) was born in 1969 in Turkey. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Recent exhibitions include the 2002 International Biennial of young Art - BIG TORINO, "Nachgemacht" at Kunstraum in Innsbruck, European Videoart Exhibition at the Videoart Center Tokyo, "Art Position 2002, Young Art" in Vienna, "Heimaten" Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst in Leipzig and "The Subject and Power (the lyrical voice)" in Moscow. Lives and works in Vienna.
The video highlights positive aspects of terms such as "smuggler" or "trafficker" which have been given a negative connotation through the dominant media discourse. In contrast to the widespread model for representation, the actual act of "smuggling" is not presented as a criminal exploitation of asylum seekers. Instead the video discusses the service character of this business and confronts the hegemonic model for representation of so-called trafficking and migration. Oliver Ressler (http://www.ressler.at/, oliver.ressler@chello.at) is an Austrian artist who works on projects with various socio-political themes. Since 1994 he has been concerned with theme specific exhibitions, projects in public space, and videos on issues of racism, migration, genetic engineering, economics, forms of resistance and social alternatives. Many of Resslers works are produced as collaborations: The ongoing project "Boom!" with the US-artist David Thorne, the films "Venezuela from Below" and "5 Factories-Worker Control in Venezuela" with the political analyst Dario Azzellini, and numerous of projects on racism and migration with artist Martin Krenn. He recently completed the film "What Would it Mean to Win?" in collaboration with the Australian artist Zanny Begg. Martin Krenn (http://www.martinkrenn.net/, mail@martinkrenn.net) as artist examines and discuss in his work socio-political topics. He uses different media such as photography, video and the Internet to develop projects that are realised in exhibitions, the web and in public space. He is also a curator of contemporary art. From 2002 to 2006 he taught at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. Since 2006 he has been teaching at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna. From that time he is the president of IG Bildende Kunst (an artists association in Austria). Lives and works in Vienna.
The Caravan of the Erased happened in November 2006, the project was organised by a group of the "Erased people" of Slovenia that was supported by activists from various movements in Slovenia as well as in Italy, France, and Germany. The purpose of the caravan, which travelled to Brussels via Trieste, Monfalcone, and Paris, was to reach the European Parliament and to inform others about the problem of the erasure in Slovenia. The Erased people of Slovenia are a group of 18.305 (almost 1 % of the Slovenian population), originating from one of the other republics of the former Yugoslavia (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia), whose personal data were unlawfully transferred from a register of people with permanent residence to a register of people with no legal status in Slovenia in 1992 as a side effect of Slovenian independence - the reason for erasure was the fact that they had not applied for Slovenian citizenship. The film documents their journey and their activities and brings statements from the participants of the caravan. Dražena Perić (draz386@yahoo.com) was born in 1972 in Split, Croatia. As a student she made her living as a journalist of the Croatian National TV. In 1997 she moved to Slovenia where she has been active firstly in feminist-lesbian and then in anti-racist community (Metelkova, Rog). She has utilised her creative spirit as a DJ, a photographer and also made documentary film The Caravan of the Erased. She earns her living as a layout artist and is about to finish a course on Photography and Digital Media at the School for Applied Arts Famul Stuart Ljubljana.
A short video clip with most relevant actions against the Migrant Detention Centre Bologna (CPT) happened from 1999 till 2005. Actions and initiatives are organised by activists of the Centro Sociale TPO.
Closing down Migrant Detention Centres - CPT. No Border Parade* (IT) On 6 October 2006, the 3rd European Day Against the Borders Regime and for Freedom of Movement: No Border Parade took place in Bologna. The parade called for immediate closure of the Migrant Detention Centre. The Parade starts near the Centre where migrants welcome activists and shout out "Freedom".
During the 26 March 2004 demonstration of TPO activists for the freedom of all undocumented immigrants, migrants start a protest inside the Migrant Detention Centre (CPT) Bologna. One of them gets naked and inflicts himself with injuries while police try to stop the revolt, but cannot use violence because of the activists with video-cameras. During the demonstration migrants escape and 16 of them make it to freedom by running through the fields. The voiceovers in the video are of the detained migrants interviewed by the TPO activists and from the programme of GlobalRadio. They tell their stories and opinions about the detention.
*A film from the series "Struggles to Close Italian CPTs. The Struggle Against the CPT in Bologna". Migrant detention centres were introduced in Italy in 1998 by the left wing Government of Italian President Prodi. They detained undocumented migrants, starting the regime of administrative detention where people are deprived from their freedom without having committed any crime. Since that year the social movements from Bologna has been leading a big campaign against the installation of the CPT in Bologna. The videos by TPO and GlobalProject record step-by-step a struggle made of direct actions against the centre, of demonstrations and communication campaign but also of actions against the whole system of labour exploitation-detention-deportation of immigrants. CPT is actually a tool to keep migrants threatened and therefore weak labour subjects, unable to reclaim rights and a better life because of their illegal status. The struggle against migrant detention centres is nation-based and carries on today since CPTs are still open and efficient: in Italy there are around 17 CPTs spread out from north to south. Demonstrators taking part in the campaign have been severely repressed, both physically and legally (many legal procedures are open against activists taking parts in direct actions).
GlobalProject (http://www.globalproject.info/) is a web portal for independent information linked to the network of Italian centri sociali (autonomous spaces) such as TPO in Bologna. Articles, audio, photo galleries, videos and films are produced by activists, many of them sign their productions with the logo of GlobalProject.
The concept for the movie was drawn up in one of the asylum seekers residences in Vienna between March and July 2005. For fear of being targeted or discriminated against, many willing asylum seekers opted out of the project. So the idea of staying anonymous was allowed, and voice interviews were made instead. "One misguided action from us, brings chains of reaction ... sometimes it become so grave that it threatens to exterminate creation."
Agnes Achola (agnesachola@hotmail.com) is an art student from Uganda, living in Vienna. Daniela Tagger (danielatagger@hotmail.com) is an art student from Carinthia, living in Vienna. Hendrix Johnson (reality890@yahoo.com) is an asylum seeker from Africa, living in Vienna
The video shows a view of a city and human figures in fragmentation. A young, dark skinned woman in close-up speaks about some everyday topic in English while she is moving energetically through dreary city quarters. Only slowly - while we are confronted with bits and pieces of text material in Viennese dialect - it becomes clear that the city she lives in must be Vienna. What annoys her day after day and is a constant source of stress to her are those banal situations of everyday racism and xenophobia in the back of the Austrian average mind.
Peter Höll (hoell-boyraz@utanet.at) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Recent shows include the European Videoart Exhibition at the Videoart Center Tokyo, "Art Position 2002, Young Art" in Vienna, "West und Werkstatt" at Projects United in Zürich, "verso sud" at Palazzo Doria Pamphilj in Valmontone, "u.a.west" at Galerie Thoman in Innsbruck, "Juana y Juanita" at Galeria Juana de Aizpuru in Madrid, "Relazioni incrociate" in Cinema Pasquino in Rome and Bern, Festival Soho in Ottakring in Vienna, "Obsorge" at the Kunsthaus in Zug and "Franz West, Appartment" at Deichtorhallen in Hamburg. Lives and works in Vienna.
Songül Boyraz (hoell-boyraz@utanet.at) was born in 1969 in Turkey. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Recent exhibitions include the 2002 International Biennial of young Art - BIG TORINO, "Nachgemacht" at Kunstraum in Innsbruck, European Videoart Exhibition at the Videoart Center Tokyo, "Art Position 2002, Young Art" in Vienna, "Heimaten" Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst in Leipzig and "The Subject and Power (the lyrical voice)" in Moscow. Lives and works in Vienna.
In/Visible On the Move is the story of the Coordinamento Migranti of Verona, the most important experience of migrants' self-organisation in Italy. It represents a choral report on self-expression of a political movement, followed during a whole year of intense social struggles aimed at obtaining rights, income and dignity. As the outcome of a joint inquiry Ludovica Fales (ludica8@gmx.net) born in Rome 1981, director, studied Political Philosophy at La Sapienza, Rome, and at the Freie Universitaet, Berlin. She has worked at "Repubblica.it" (web edition of the daily newspapers La Repubblica), Deriveapprodi (book publisher) and she writes for "Jura Gentium Cinema". She's a precarious worker, presently finishing her dissertation for her degree in Philosophy.
A documentary which captures the slow motion of travelling. On the occasion of the entry of Bulgaria and Romania to the EU in 2007, the Bulgarian town Rousse organised a bus tour over one of the only bridges linking the two countries. People from the neighbouring villages gathered to celebrate the moment of joy that made them pass as European citizens, first to Giurgiu and then to nearby Bucharest. The video shows scenes of this bus journey from January 2007 as well as the trips to the cities, which the artist later also recorded on local TV. Although not shown on official European media, Stoyanov's video documents the effects globalisation has on the most eastern part of a territory with an ever-growing reach. Kamen Stoyanov (kamen_bild@yahoo.com) was born in 1977 in Ruse, Bulgaria. He graduated from the National Art Academy in Sofia and completed his art and cultural science study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. In addition he receives foreign exchange scholarships in Rome and in Paris. Stoyanov's artistic work varies between photography and video, which mostly points out moments from urban situations, which are at the limit of the public perception, as well as the unauthorised use of the public area by private people, the connected restructuring of them and the new coverage of peripheral places by the economy. Alongside, he argues with the striving of the particular for participation on the free market, with the problem of the migration as well as with the contemporary forms of nomadism. His works have been presented in numerous single and group exhibitions.
This documentary is dedicated to migrants disappeared into the waves of Mediterranean Sea, only one step away from Europe. Since 2004 Malta is a member state of the EU, the Southeast border of Europe and the film is about the life conditions of those migrants who stepped into Malta on their way to Europe. Some of them died before reaching the ground, the others are caged in detention centres up to 18 months, children and asylum seekers, too. They will hardly reach another country. None of them wanted to get to Malta, but very few can go away once arrived there because international laws forces asylum and protection seekers to stay in Malta. The film is an inquiry on the latest established most southern border of European Union: the island state of Malta. Malta has turned itself into a jail-island in the pursuit of conform to the rules that the EU imposes to new states members of the EU before joining the Union. Four migrant detention centres in a land which is only 316 km2 and foreigners men and women who get trapped inside them, unable to leave because of the EU policies and agreements on migration. The Malta Experience is the story - through images and voices - of these people, in a state of limbo, trapped and hanging in a temporary status which lasts forever, at close distance (only one step) to the Europe of their dreams. Alessandra Sciurba (mailto:alesciurba@ahoo.it) is PhD candidate at the University of Palermo with the thesis "Concentration and detention areas in relationship with the EU's migration policies". She has published articles on contemporary migrations and administrative detention centres at the borders of the new Europe. She is involved in the defence of migrants' rights with self-organised non-profit organisations, such as Rete Antirazzista Siciliana. She has realised two other video-films: "Vi chiediamo di essere pazienti" (2004) and "Lampedusa scoppia" (2005) (www.inventati.org/zetalab). She also works with the Melting Pot Project (www.meltingpot.org). Beatrice Barzaghi works in the Municipality of Venice. She's a video editor and has also taught editing. She has collaborated on many social documentaries, including "Kawkab. Invisibles without land", which won the Audience Prize at Mestre Film Festival in 2004.
Twenty-five million Brazilians are of Italian origin. Almost all of them are the descendants of the Italians who left poor rural Italy at the end of the 1800s for a continent which promised wealth and a better life. After only a century however, the direction of migration has been completely reversed. Italy which a century ago was a place to escape from, has in the meantime become "the first world", the longed for final destination of immigrants throughout the world. The only thing which does not seem to change is the plight of those forced to migrate. Federico Ferrone (mericadoc@gmail.com) was born in Florence in 1981. He works with the cinema web magazines Drammaturgia e cinema and with the daily newspaper L'Unità. He has worked as a director's assistant for the cycle of documentaries Histoires et Méditerranée produced by Cinétélefilms à Tunis. His Banliyo-Banlieue (2004) filmed in Paris with C. Rivière and F. Ragazzi was awarded the "Premio Cinamavvenire" 2004, the "Premio Molise Cinema" 2005, and the "Premio Videopolis" 2005 for the Best Film and Best Documentary. Michele Manzolini (mericadoc@gmail.com) was born in Sondrio in 1980 and studied at the Universidad do Minho in Portugal and at the Universidad Federal do Rio de Janeiro. He specialises in Brazilian cinema and is director of "Iberamericana", the Festival on Latin-American Cinema in Bologna. Francesco Ragazzi (mericadoc@gmail.com) was born in Santiago de Chile in 1980. He is a PhD candidate in International Relations at the Northwestern University of Chicago and Institut d'études politiquest of Paris. Together with Ferrone and Rivière he filmed the documentary Banliyo-Banlieue (2004).
Migrant Stories introduces migrant workers, highlights community attitudes to migrant labour, eye witnesses discrimination and racism, triggers debate on migrant work and springboards discussion on diversity. Migrant Stories was an action research project to bring the voice of migrant workers into community groups and organisations and to demonstrate the use of accessible, creative digital technologies to foster understanding and strengthen community cohesion and networks. The project has created a picture of a rural county's relationship with its many thousands of migrant workers. Russian, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Czech workers in Herefordshire have been making digital stories, alongside local residents, who have befriended them. There are many different reasons for coming to England - to see the sights, to broaden horizons, to make money to buy a house back home, to escape unemployment. Many are homesick, lonely, and disappointed by what they have found here, as well as exploited by agents, who don't deliver what they promise. Many have a good time and return to pick fruit every summer or decide to stay for years. The Rural Media Company (http://www.ruralmedia.co.uk/) is an award winning media education, development and production organisation with a national reputation for its powerful, socially aware media and communications work.
This video covers the events that took place in Vienna, Austria, in 2003, after the brutal death of Seibane Wague - a young black male. An interview with Natalie, the widow, takes us on a journey to the beginning of their relationship, a trip to Mauritania, Africa, where they married, the daily struggle against the odds and prejudices and how she took on a seemingly unconquerable adversary on her quest for justice. Patrick Léon Bongola (www.tresmonos.com/natalies-geschichte, topoke@tresmonos.com) was born in Vienna in 1972, grew up in Kinshasa, and moved to Austria at the age of 15. After high-school and attending an Economical school he went back to Kinshasa, but the outbreak of a civil war forced him to return to Vienna. He is working within Projekt Integrationshaus, an NGO taking care of asylum seekers in Vienna.
Taste of EUrope: Emotional Guide on European Mentality / Okus EUrope: Emocionalni vodnik po evropski mentaliteti (SI) Social critical documentary Taste of Europe conceptualizes immigration and life in Europe through personal declaration of 25 immigrants who came to live in EU from all sites of the globe. As the author emphasises, the film is addressing two types of viewers: (1) to the future immigrants, it tries to offer the reflection on the situations in which they will most probably encounter when they reach their final destination, and (2) to the people already born in the European society, it tries to bring near experiential site of the immigration and to present the life in EU through the eyes of the immigrants. The story of the film leads us gradually from intimate and personal subjects to wider more ethical questions of our existence. Along with the immigrants' confessions, the story introduces also animated Greek myth about goddess Europe, who actually represents prototype of immigrant soul. Uroš Lebar (uros.lebar@gmail.com) was born in 1980 in Ljubljana. Although he has been film enthusiast for all of his youth he actively stepped into the world of video production at the age of 26. His primarily interests has been anthropology, humanity and metaphysical questions, so he finished Cultural studies at University of Ljubljana in 2006. In the meantime he traveled a lot, worked as journalist and did half year voluntary practice in Italy, which showed him some cruel effects of current immigration politics. However, the voluntary work has been sponsored by EU, which has afterwards given him unique opportunity to transform his own social idea in to the project that would benefit to society. Thus he decided to do a full length documentary, although he never held in his hands video camera before. The result has been a documentary sponsored by EU on social injustice in which EU is playing indispensable role. All of the viewers' critics have been extremely positive and in the same time his film has never been accepted to any festival. So he was confused about his further life plans and didn't know what would be better: to continue with low budget film production to please alternative public or to do anthropology researches on human conciseness. On one hand viewers crying on social injustice reminds him on ancient tragedy (very addicted feeling), but on the other hand it is more important to him to find out why people enjoy watching bizarre facts of their lives and don't do anything about it. He left the job of TV video editor in Slovenia and just has immigrated in Spain and is currently searching new experiences and enjoying meditations.
Travellers Remember is a collection of 25 digital stories, each lasting two to three minutes, which record the personal memories of Traveller families in the West Midlands. The families were contacted through Traveller Education Services, Traveller Liaison Officers and Travellers Times. Experienced outreach media workers helped children and young people to record their parents and grandparents, adding family photographs to bring the memories to life. The Rural Media Company (http://www.ruralmedia.co.uk/) is an award winning media education, development and production organisation with a national reputation for its powerful, socially aware media and communications work.
As persons living in Europe, often with foreign nationalities, these women, as well as myself, with or without a headscarf, represent neither Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan nor any other country or Islam itself. Even so, they often serve as targets. The majority of Muslim women living in Europe, with or without a headscarf, first and foremost, represent their individual selves and not religious or nationalist ideas. Nilbar Güres (nilbargures@yahoo.com) was born in 1977 in Istanbul. She has a Bachelor's degree in Painting from the Faculty of Arts, Marmara University in Istanbul, and a Master's degree in Painting & Graphics from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. She is author of numerous projects dealing with the socio-political issues in Vienna and Istanbul and across Europe.
In February 2002 there was a party in the Vienna City Hall for all "New Austrians", who had just received their Austrian citizenship. I was also one of the new Austrians there. Songül Boyraz (hoell-boyraz@utanet.at) was born in 1969 in Turkey. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Recent exhibitions include the 2002 International Biennial of young Art - BIG TORINO, "Nachgemacht" at Kunstraum in Innsbruck, European Videoart Exhibition at the Videoart Center Tokyo, "Art Position 2002, Young Art" in Vienna, "Heimaten" Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst in Leipzig and "The Subject and Power (the lyrical voice)" in Moscow. Lives and works in Vienna.
film and video | photography | performance | roundtables | voice of the people
Caravan of the Erased of Slovenia in Brussels, 2006 (SI) In November 2006 a group of the Erased people of Slovenia together with activists from various movements from Slovenia, Italy, France and Germany has organised a trip to European Parliament in Brussels to warn about the problem of the erasure in Slovenia. Dare Čekeliš (dare.cekelis@pop-tv.si) is a professional photographer who works for numerous established Slovenian media (24ur.com, Mladina, Delo ...). He specialises in documentary photography and frequently covers activist happenings, demonstrations, and artistic street actions.
Documentary images shot with a specific sensibility presents some moments from detention camps for migrants in Veliki Otok (Slovenia, 2005) and Gradisca/Gradišče (Italy, 2005 and 2006) and shows activist demonstration for closing the camps and the freedom of movement for all. As activists' protests are usually accompanied by police attendance, the photographer could not avoid showing their activities, too. Three selected triptichs communicate through the language of symbols about repression and its consequences. Darij Zadnikar (darij.zadnikar@gmail.com) is a university professor and activist, who occasionally takes photos of the cracks in the global system.
Europe in a Cage The series is a part of the "No Fortress Europe" campaign launched in 2006 by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left group in the European Parliament (www.no-fortress-europe.org), aiming to oppose the adoption of the EU directive on "common standards and procedures for returning illegally staying third-country nationals" (Return Directive). The European Parliament will vote on this text on the 20th of May 2008. Should it finally be adopted, this text would allow up to 18 months of holding in detention centres all over Europe. Within the recent years some members and staff of the group participated in the European Parliament delegations to several holding centres in Italy, Spain, France, Malta, Greece, Belgium, Netherlands and Poland in view of monitoring the detention conditions. They have collected pictures of each holding centre and put some of them to the exhibition "Europe in a Cage". Because media and non-governmental organizations are normally forbidden to enter the holding centres, this photo exhibition is a unique opportunity to see and understand what "Fortress Europe" is really all about.
The essay is part of a larger project focused on the look of borders become manifest, the look of the land and the people when the arbitrary line in the sand takes form, becomes militarized and is deadly. The shots were taken in Melilla, a Spanish enclave in the north of Morocco. Migrants travel for four, five, six years to reach this side of the line only to be held in migrant holding centres, some for years, awaiting the legal system to either award them papers or deport them to where they worked so hard (and many died) to leave. And although the specific images and situations may vary slightly from that of the US/Mexico border or around Israel's Wall in Palestine, the root issues remain the same; those called "first world nations" (which could not function without the labour of these migrants) create a global system that forces people to migrate and then criminalizes those same migrants for trying to enter the promised land where food, jobs and 'security' supposedly remain. The intention behind these images is to be a piece in the puzzle that exposes the dirty little secrets of ourselves and our racism, to force us to confront the global situation of the haves and have-nots, to play a part in the movement to erase all borders, physical and perceived, and to push us toward a world of freedom, justice and respect for all. Politically active for the past 15 years, K. Flo Razowsky (www.lightstalkers.org/k__flo_razowsky, flowalksfree@gmail.com) combines her photography and on-the-ground activism through civil disobedience, direct-action, documentary photography, writing and multi-media work. Flo has participated in campaigns across the globe including in occupied Palestine, at the Spanish/Moroccan border and in the United States. Flo's involvement has focused on such issues as the No Border/migration rights movement, Indigenous Struggles in the US, anti-occupation work in Palestine and environmental campaigns. "I would not say I am a 'photographer', yet only someone kept sane through the lens of a camera. I see the world as a series of images able to tell stories of who we are, how we relate to, support and destroy one another. At the moment, my weapon of choice in this political game of life is a camera in my hands and the passion to show the world what I see through the viewfinder."
Concepts of an active citizenship, approachable public space and non-discriminatory society are opposed to the neoliberal consumption society, which tries to normalise various attempts of identity resistance. The streets of contemporary cities are CCTV-controlled environments. Instead of being a space of creative political engagement including protesting, they become a forbidden area for such activities - they become battlefields of violent repression of vertical structures regardless the reason for resisting of horizontal ones. The series Streets are Battlefields tries to expose this paradoxical moment of weakness of the contemporary democracy.
The exhibition is part of the Caffé Babele project by the association Ya Basta!. Caffé Babele is a weekly meeting place for immigrants, mostly women from Eastern Europe working in Italy as "badanti", personal care assistants for elderly or non-self-efficient people. They manage the same skills of nurses and sanitary professions but their salary and working treatment are those of a non-qualified job. In Caffé Babele they spend their only day off, on Sundays. Here they meet their friends and get legal aid and information from people of the association Ya Basta!, as the majority of these workers are undocumented and lay in an invisible dimension. The idea of the picture exhibition is born from their active participation at Caffé Babele - the pictures wish to give visibility to people who have become phantom-like in the Italian society because of the Immigration Law. Nicoletta Acerbi's (yabasta.reggioemilia@gmail.com) passion for photography as a way of capturing instants of life started ten years ago and leads to portraits and people's faces in many of the world's countries. Pictures are a way to give voice to voiceless people, therefore photography is used by Nicoletta as a way to document, research, and denounce. In 2001 she realised an exhibition at Movimento Dos Sem Terra (Brasil), in 2003 in Mali after her experience as operator on a NGO, and in 2006 at the Worlds Social Forum in Venezuela. She is strongly involved in migration issues related to women studies. In collaboration with the Municipality of Reggio Emilia she realised "Migrant Women at Work. A Choice, a Hope" (2005) and "Feminine Plural" (2005) a documentary about three migrant women. Besides being a photographer, she is an activist for the association Ya Basta! where she follows self-organisation processes in support of their struggles, the last one is "Regularisation now!", which began 1 May 2007 by undocumented migrants workers in Reggio Emilia.
film and video | photography | performance | roundtables | voice of the people
A Silent Cry / Un grido silenzioso (IT) The voice of a woman links two different spaces: Chernobyl 1986 and Italy 2007. Her voice tells us about the tragical experience of Chernobyl, the eviction of the contaminated area, the consequent emigration to Italy and the experience of working without contracts as the personal care assistant ("badante") of an old man, like all women coming from Eastern Europe to Italy. The audience follows the words of the main and only character, a monologue leading the audience to think about the destiny of those people forced to a continuous exodus facing borders, both physical and mental, increasing everyday. Like the main character, many women come from Eastern Europe to Italy. The performance was inspired by their stories, by what they tell each Sunday to people managing Progetto Caffé Babele, run by the association Ya Basta of Reggio Emilia in cooperation with Progetto Melting Pot Europa. Federica Zambelli (federica00@gmail.com) started her theatre career in 1996. Her main teachers were Marco Manchisi, Enrique Vargas, Claudia Contini, Monica Francia, Michele Di Stefano, E. Di Mello, Giorgio Rossi, Michele Abbondanza, Antonella Bertoni, Javier Cura and Horacio Czertok. She has acted in eleven plays and she has directed eight productions. She also teaches acting; she particularly likes to develop the use of voice and the research of the character in theatre.
The Invasion of the Supernormals, graphic essays and performances by Action 30 (IT) Action 30 (http://www.action30.it/) is a group of designers, photographers, video-makers, journalists and activists interested in the analysis and criticism of new forms of racism and fascism, that is to say a "micro-fascism" which makes the bitter tyranny of contemporary life. Action 30 is a website, a blog, and a cultural association based in Bari, Italy.
film and video | photography | performance | roundtables | voice of the people
Bologna / Border Transformations: New Regimes of Control of Migration Movements in the Enlarged Europe Participants: Alessandra Sciurba (Melting Pot Europa, Bologna), Paolo Cuttitta (University of Palermo), Lana Zdravković (Institute KITCH, Ljubljana). Introduced and moderated by Sandro Mezzadra (University of Bologna). While material and physical borders marking the geographical and spatial dimension of the world are increasingly vanishing, immaterial borders are becoming increasingly precise and strong. They try to block individuals' mobility and flight through a process of internalisation of boundaries and borders identified not only in what they exclude, but above all, in what they select and transform, trying to mark on migrants' bodies different shadows of legitimacy and access to rights. Juridical and administrative devices actually define the regularity of a migrant's stay in thousands of ways; consider, as an example, the consequences that are implied by possessing a seasonal worker's visa compared to an indeterminate worker's visa, a refugee visa compared to a humanitarian protection visa, a study visa compared to a family-ties visa, etc. Thanks to juridical devices introduced through xenophobic campaigns of mass-media, migrants see their access to European countries as well as the quality of their stay heavily conditioned and influenced, creating different kinds and shapes of access to public welfare and human rights, confronting them with exploitation, discrimination, and slavery. The core of the debate is not only the transformation process of the control of the borders through different oppressive ways and techniques, but also the multiple dimensions of the phenomenon of existing throughout borders and across borders: living on a border, in fact. The daily struggle marking migrant experiences - the escape from wars and political prosecutions as well as the search for a better life - in Europe. The roundtable highlights the physical experience of the borders around the Mediterranean Sea and of new members of the European Union like Slovenia as well as border activities within European cities. It also questions whether and how crossing borders can be transformed within the context of the new European citizenship.
Ljubljana / Contemporary Migrant Situation: What Can Immigration Tell Us about Us? Participants: Gorazd Kovačič (assistant teacher of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana), Darij Zadnikar (docent of Political Philosophy, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana), Katja Kobolt (freelance cultural producer and publicist, artistic director of the City of Women Association for Promotion of Women in Culture, Ljubljana), Ana Kralj (assistant at Science and Research Centre of Koper, University of Primorska). Moderated by Veronika Bajt (researcher, Peace Institute, Ljubljana). Every year thousands of people try to flee to Europe to seek safety from persecution, economic security or just "a better life". Every year hundreds of them drown on their way from Africa to France, Italy or Spain, suffocate in sealed cargo containers, starve in locked trucks, are blown to pieces by landmines between Turkey and Greece, or freeze on their way across mountain ranges. According to the Fortress Europe (fortresseurope.blogspot.com) at least 12,000 people have died since 1988 along the European frontiers, some of them have been killed by the border police. Those who are lucky enough to finally manage to reach the "Fortress Europe" are soon fenced off in detention centres, which often do not differ from prisons, and are organized to prepare people for deportation back to their countries of origin. Some of these people commit suicide in detention centres, some of them die or are murdered during deportations, and some of them are murdered or 'disappear' upon returning to the country to which they were forcefully deported. The so called "illegal migrations" from the so called "third world counties" are today one of the most criminalized phenomena in Europe, especially the EU. As a region of proclaimed freedom, security and justice, the EU understands migrations simply as a threat and a problem, which it "manages" by border militarization, restrict asylum laws, aggressive detention policies, deportations and sanctions, based on the agreements like the Schengen Treaty, the Dublin Convention and the EU border control programmes. In opposition, activist organizations across Europe argue that migration is not a crime, that all people have the right to move and that no one is illegal. They expose that the so called "illegal migrations" from the so called "third world countries" are the product of the Western governments in their aggressive neoliberal paradigm. For them, migrants are political subjects par excellence in a wider debate about real political equality. Migrants who are coming to Europe and the EU mostly and in the first place just want better lives: peaceful life conditions, job opportunities, non-violent social and political circumstances - even though this implies the neoliberal paradigm and post capitalist mercantile society. The question is therefore not only whether the migrations are a right or a privilege, but also how to find ways to true radical equality beyond the neoliberal democracy based on juridical welfare state. One answer can be provided by sociology and philosophy, the other by politically engaged art practices.
Vienna / Art, Migration, Competition: Migrant Artist in the Austrian Art System Participants: Jessie Emkic (journalist, Le Monde diplomatique, Die Zeit, art in migration, Vienna), Carlos Toledo (artist, curator, graphic designer, Vienna), Elisabeth Mayerhofer (free lance researcher and cultural manager, board member of the Austrian Society for Cultural Economics and Policy Studies - FOKUS, Vienna), Charles Ofoedu (writer, Vienna), Lana Zdravković (researcher and artist, Institute KITCH, Ljubljana). Moderated by Hansel Sato (artist, Vienna). It has been well researched how migrants are perceived in Austria as not being part of Austrian society. In the same respect, migrant artists living in Austria are perceived as not playing a vital role in the cultural landscape of the country. Either they get attention as some "exotic" object[1] or they are expected to deal with trans-cultural topics. More often, "western" artists living in foreign countries are invited and are welcome to expose their work in important museums and galleries. In contrast, local "eastern" migrant artists are seldom noticed and often have difficulties being taken seriously. It is important to stress that certain discriminating practices are not only exercised by an elite art world or by a biased system concerning the distribution of public subsidies, but also by some representative groups within the critical left alternative art scene: from migrant artists they will demand politicised art. If this is not the case, these artists will again be excluded. Migrant artists, who have not grown up in the Western cultural tradition also have difficulties to adjust their art production to the hegemony of American and European art. Often, they have a lack of knowledge of the German technical art language and at the same time they are confronted with the resistance of local artists who perceive the migrant colleagues as rivals. Migrant artists are less stable because of their uncertain legal status and are often exposed to outright racism. It is important to mention that there are "categories" in defining the value of a migrant artist: to a gallery it makes a difference whether the artist is black and African, or white, male, and American. On the other hand, many migrant artists operate with the same strategies as Austrian artists: self-marketing, intensive care of networks, etc. Nevertheless, there are certain characteristics of the artistic procedures of many migrant artists: most of them try to copy the Western art paradigms without questioning them and thus hope to be able to sell their work or ideas in Austria and on the international market. Other migrant artists find attention by producing stereotypical or exotic art. In view of the described situation, the following questions can be posed: In which way are migrant artists being perceived in the Austrian cultural scenery? Which role does prejudice play in relation to nationality or race? Which strategies have to be developed by these artists in order to be successful?
[1] If we use the language of economy, we could say that since the early stages of capitalism, the circulation of goods has passed unhindered from the south to the north - and is even being promoted. Those, who manufactured these goods, have to remain in their respective countries as in the case of the foreign artists. They are more interesting and respected if they manufacture their stereotypical goods (works of art) for the Western market in their respective countries.
London / Multiculturalism: A Solution or a Problem? Participants: local researchers, publicists, artists and activists. Introduced and moderated by Lana Zdravković (Institute KITCH, Ljubljana). The term multiculturalism generally refers to a de facto state of racial, cultural and ethnic diversity within the demographics of a specified place, usually at the scale of an organization such as a school, business, neighbourhood, city or state. Some countries have official, or de jure policies of multiculturalism aimed at recognizing, celebrating and maintaining the different cultures or cultural identities within that society in order to promote social cohesion. In this context, multiculturalism advocates a society that extends equitable status to distinct cultural and religious groups, with no one culture predominating. As a philosophy, multiculturalism began as part of the pragmatism movement at the end of the nineteenth century in Britain and in the United States, then as political and cultural pluralism at the turn of the twentieth. It was partly a response to a new wave of European imperialism in sub-Saharan Africa and the massive immigration of Southern and Eastern Europeans to the United States and Latin America. Yet sceptics of the ideology often debate whether the multicultural ideal of benignly co-existing cultures that interrelate and influence one another, and yet remain distinct, is sustainable, paradoxical or even desirable when housed by a single nation - one that, in the case of some European nations, would previously had been synonymous with a distinctive cultural identity of its own. In the US especially, multiculturalism became associated with political correctness without any real equality of cultures, and with the rise of ethnic identity politics. The idea of the so called "melting pot" which as a metaphor implies that all the immigrant cultures are mixed and amalgamated without state intervention, at the same time implied that each individual immigrant and each group of immigrants are assimilated into the American society at their own pace. An Americanized (and often stereotypical) version of the original nation's cuisine, and its holidays, survived. But obviously it is not a good way to deal with the actual cultural differences and diversities. Official multiculturalism usually limits the freedom of minority members, by confining them to cultural and geographic ghettos. Cultures are very complex and must be transmitted through close family and kin relations. The government view of cultures as being about festivals and cuisine is a crude oversimplification that leads to easy stereotyping. Thus multiculturalism generally works better in theory than in practice. The UK has continuously high immigration rates, among the highest in the EU. Most of the immigrants of the last decades came from the Indian subcontinent or the Caribbean, i.e. from the former British colonies. In 2004 the number of people who became British citizens rose to a record 140,795 - a rise of 12% on the previous year. This number has been on the rise since 2000. The overwhelming majority of new citizens come from Africa (32%) and Asia (40%), the largest three groups being people from Pakistan, India and Somalia. The question arises about the very concept of multiculturalism: has it been designed by the colonial and imperial countries for the purpose of cleaning their bad conscience because of their aggressive and long-term colonialism and imperialism, the consequences of which these countries suffer still today?
Series of short video questionnaires, concept by KITCH in collaboration with the web media Vest, 2008
Passers-by in the streets of Ljubljana were asked for their opinion about migrants coming to Europe and to Slovenia and EU migration policies in general. Their short answers show us an (average) public opinion of (Western) Europeans about the migrant situation. Questionaries are available here (only in Slovene):
Stalna čakalnica: glas ljudstva 1
film and video | photography | performance | roundtables | voice of the people |