Polish Pavilion, 53rd International Art Exhibition, Venice, 2009
The project coincided with a rise in anti-immigrant views in many European countries. The “guests” are immigrants arriving in Europe where internal borders have been scrapped but external ones are being tightened, and where an official discourse of acceptance and legalization coexists with immigration-regulating procedures. The project featured immigrants residing in Poland and Italy and originally hailing from Chechnya, Ukraine,
Vietnam, Romania, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Morocco. Immigrants, who are
“not at home” and remain “eternal guests,” were given an opportunity to speak up, to
make themselves visible in public space. The projection shows what happens behind the
illusion of windows: immigrants performing various chores, washing windows, cleaning,
resting, chatting, exchanging comments about their tough living conditions, unemployment, trouble legalizing their stay. The visibility of the different figures is limited, the slightly blurry images making it hard to discern clearly what is really happening behind the glass. This allusion to the visibility of immigrants, who are almost “at a hand’s reach” yet “on the other side,” behind image-distorting windows, refers us to their ambiguous status, their social invisibility.
Organized by the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw.
Project curator: Bożena Czubak.
Another version of the projection was presented at Atlas Sztuki Gallery, Łódź, 2010.
