Shifting Identities - (Swiss) Art Now
Curator:Mirjam Varadinis
Kunsthaus Zürich
6.6 - 31.8.2008
Permit F
A performance with a group of refugees
A project by Al Fadhil
With the collaboration of Hayder Almusawi
Saturday August 30th 2008
Starting point: Zürich HB exit Bahnhofstrasse at 2pm
The Swiss confederation is known as a land of asylum. Because
of its neutral policy and its solidarity laws, the land
has hosted in its cantons many people who have left their
countries of origin for political or religious reasons,
or because they belong to ethnic and racial groups. In the
Swiss Parliament, particular decrees were established in
order to regulate the temporary admittance of refugees according
to their situation. The permit granted to the refuge-seekers
falls within category F.
Having sought a refuge in Switzerland, in the hope of having
peace, they have found themselves holding the controversial
class “F” permit, which allows only limited
freedom. According to chapter 11 of article 83, certain
rights are granted to the refugee, but actually these are
rules of control, which often contradict the principles
of transparency and solidarity.
The artist breaks the circle and invites the exiles to
a peaceful and creative public demonstration inside the
museum. Art is a free territory, it offers the possibility
of reflection. Its power conveys a sense of belonging, of
being a citizen of a world without permits and frontiers.
Saturday August the 30th, at 2pm, a group of refugees with
their relatives and friends, from different nationalities
and all with an armband bearing the symbol of the project,
will walk from the Zurich central station, crossing the
Bahnhofstraße, and proceed towards the Kunsthaus.
Each person will carry a sign with a slogan referring to
permit F, the Swiss flag or various symbols of the associations
engaged in the defence of their rights.
Many thanks to:
the inspirer of the project Hayder Almusawi, Lugano
the refugees with permit f and their friends
my counsellor Riccardo Lisi
Franco Marinotti / PLAY platform for Film & Video, Lugano
& Berlin
Daniela and Guido Guidici / ConsArc Gallery, Chiasso
The people at the Museo Cantonale d’Arte di Lugano
TSI Televisione della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano
Giona Mattei, Soccorso Operaio, Lugano
ZBA Züricher Betratungsstelle für Asylsuschende
Giuditta, Lugano
and my teachers, friends and relatives dead or surviving
in Iraq
Further information: www.shifting-identities.ch www.alfadhilhussain.blogspot.com/
info@iraqpavilion.com
E’ un’idea, un’azione, un agire comunicativo
basato sulla realtà dei fatti. I Repeat A Question
è una legittima interrogazione che cerca il suo spazio
nella nostra mente in una quotidianità in rapida trasformazione
al punto da farci dimenticare le catastrofi dei nostri simili,
dei nostri vicini. Se il mondo contemporaneo ci stimola continuamente
con i suoi messaggi e le sue comunicazioni, allora sussiste
la possibilità di ripetere una domanda. La stessa di
sempre. Il mondo si trasforma, così pure si trasforma
l’Iraq, in modo sempre più tragico e sempre più
dimenticato dalla scena artistica mondiale, ma non da quella
affaristica bellica.
Avremmo voluto vedere in questa Biennale la petroliera ormeggiata
e vuota intitolata Iraqi issue pavilion, ma la politica non
ha voluto, così non ci rimane altro che rifare la stessa
domanda: I Repeat A Question.
I.R.A.Q. I Repeat A Question
collateral effect of the 52nd Venice Biennale
An idea, a course of action, an communicative
act based on the reality of the facts. I Repeat A Question
is a legitimate interrogation that seeks its space in our
mind amidst a daily life a in transformation so rapid as to
make us forget our own kind, our neighbours. If the contemporary
world stimulates us continually with its messages and its
communication, there must still exist the possibility of repeating
a question. The same question as always. The world transforms
itself, even Iraq transforms itself, moves in a direction
that is more and more tragic and becomes more and more forgotten
by the world artistic scene, but unforgotten of course by
war profiteers. We would have liked to show an empty petrol-tanker
in dock, entitled “Iraq Issue Pavilion” in this
biennale, but politics wouldn’t allow it, so the only
thing that remains is to repeat the same question: I Repeat
A Question.
Artist: Al Fadhil
Title: I.R.A.Q. - I Repeat A Question
Curated by: Riccardo Lisi
Venue: Venice urban space
Date: 7-9 June 2007
A project by: Dissident Energy
In collaboration with: Hadel Nazmy, Kadhum
Courtesy: Peter Lewis - Redux project, iraqpavilion.com, artnow.it
www.irepeataquestion.org
The Biennale has no position on conflict and no part in it
"R. S."
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