Ronen.Dvarim

The Refugee Caravan is coming to Thüringen and will holding an event in Jena and at the Freienbessingen Refugee Camp (check out post!). You are all invited to join if you are in the area.

The Caravan for the Rights of Refugees and Migrants invites you to participate in the 2007 Tour with us. We will be travelling through Germany for two weeks (May 19 to June 4, 2007) before the G8 Summit. The Tour will begin in Neuburg close to Munich and will end in Rostock close to Heiligendamm, where the Summit will take place. This is how we want to show the connection between migration and the destruction of the home countries of refugees and migrants by the G8 States. We will focus on the countries of origin at every station of the tour. We also want to draw public attention to the awful situation of deportations and camps in Germany and Europe as a whole. The Tour is organised by refugee and migrant self-organizations in cooperation with the NoLager Network and other anti-racist groups.

Press to see larger. (I designed the fliers - my small contribution to the struggle)

Please download the flyers and ditrubute:
Caravan Schedule Thüringen (english) /Caravan Schedule Thüringen (deutch) /
close the larger (deutch) / close the larger (english) / send fax (deutch)

For more information: thevoiceforum.org / thecaravan.org

La Repubblica.it the website of Italy’s leading newspaper made a nice flash photogallery of the project (un)Documented Disappearance.

there is no direct link so go to: Foto > Spettacoli & Cultura > and press: Nelle fogne di Jena la vita segreta dei rifugiati

(un)Documented Disappearance in Wooster collective  (NYC)
(un)Documented Disappearance in inicios.se (spain)

the project was also on german TV and local newspapers. i will ad links when i get them.

As part of the program requirements of the MFA at the Bauhaus we have to participate with our project at a gallery exhibition. I feel quit strange about the whole situation of doing something in the gallery. My project was made for the street and that is where it belongs. No explanation of the project was presented on the street. The impact of the instillation is that one meets, discovers it by accident. Strolling down the street you see something strange, a light catches your eye and you look down the sewage opening and get surprised, if you are curious you ask yourself questions. You encounter the “migrant showing you their papers” but you are not sure what you have seen or understand who these people are. Maybe you share it with your friends or coworkers that also saw the instillation. Together you try to figure out what it is all about. Jena is a small town, hopefully people will talk and the strange people in the sewage will be with time understood.

I created the Blog to show the processes of the project, to bring it to the public sphere of the internet. It was important to me to present my research, the information that brought to this project, the photos I taken at the refugee camp, my thoughts and feelings to my friends and associates, but also to as wide as an audience as possible. This is working well, the refugees at the camp and in Jena were delighted for the didtribution and exposure of the pictures that were presented in the internet. Websites from New York and Spain already featured the project and linked to the explanations. The Blog (and the Flickr set) are not only presenting the project but also modestly distributing the problems, struggles and information on migrants and refugees in Germany.

So when I came to set up the show I wanted the display at the gallery to work in a similar way as the Blog. Not only to represent the specific instillation but also present the information and bring the viewers to learn more about the subject. So I decided to print out the blog with all the post up to that day, and highlighted with bigger pictures, documents, and objects what I felt needed more attention. During the exhibition I will past up the new posts. So in a strange way the visitors to the gallery will get a physical display of this web blog. This way I will also reach the local city audience who will visit the gallery but might not encounter the project on the web. Of course I encourage all visitors to visit and comment the blog on the web and cards with the address of the blog were printed and given out at the gallery.

Artist: Asian Dub Foundation
Title: Colour Line
Album: Community Music
Year: 2000

[audio:colour_line.mp3]

Today the colour line/ is the power line/ is the poverty line
Racism and imperialism work in tandem
And poverty is their handmaiden
Those who are poor and powerless to break out of their poverty
Are also those who by and large are non-white, non-western, third world
Poverty and powerlessness are intertwined in color, in race
Discrimination and exploitation feed into each other today, under global capitalism
We are back to primitive accumulation - plunder on a world scale
Only this time, the pillage is accompanied by aid, sustained by expert advice and underpinned by programmes and polices that perpetuate dependency
The IMF, the World Bank, Structural adjustment programmes
General agreement on tariffs and trade-gatt
Are just a few of the organizations, schemes, projects
Which under the guise of developing the third world. Plunder it
Trade agreements and commodity price fixing, patients and intellectual rights
They lock them into paralytic dependency
There is no such thing as illegal immigrants, only illegal governments
Today, the colour line/ is the power line/ is the poverty line

Johannisstraße 25/01/07

All the pictures with descriptions can be viewed in high-resolution in my Flicker.

On Tuesday night (23/01/07) after two cold days of installing the project we returned to Weimar only to discover that the Jena police came to my house looking for me. The officers asked my flat-mate Jonas to tell me to call the police station as soon as I come home because they found a picture of me presenting my passport lit up in the sewage in Jena. Totally freaked out, my biggest fear at that moment was that just as the police visited me they might have visited the other participators in the project. The people that volunteered to participate and have there photo installed in the sewage, trusted me. They where told by me that I have all the necessary permissions for the project and both the Bauhaus university and the city of Jena are involved and support the project. How could I face them if the police show up in there homes suddenly in the middle of the night?
I quickly called the station and was transferred to Herr. Grossherr, the policeman who was looking for me. Grossherr explained that some citizen called to complain that there was something strange in the sewage, so they went to the scene of crime and quickly dismantled the suspiciously dangerous object they found. What they found was a picture of me - the one with me holding my passport - and both it and the light structure which illuminated it were removed and are now being held at the police station. I quickly realized that fortunately and very luckily they only found that installation so that they have not visited anyone except me. Nevertheless I felt angry and frustrated. On the phone, I aggressively explained that it’s an art project, that I have all the permissions needed, that the project is part of a whole public art interaction in the city of Jena and they had no right to do what they did. Grossherr continued to explain that they did not know that I had permission, and since someone complained they had to remove it. To make sure that they have not removed any other pictures, lights or visited any of the participants I had to tell him that there where more installations in other locations. Grossherr demanded to know their exact locations in order to now “protect” them. I reluctantly told him after realizing that it was probably more stupidity and ignorance that produced his actions rather than having something against the project.
We concluded the conversation by agreeing that my professors at university will send them the appropriate documents of permission the next day and that they will not touch the rest of the instillation. I was then told that I could come to the station and pick up my picture and the light structure. I tried to demand that he comes with me to reinstall it, because it was him who had uninstalled it wrongly. I explained that I worked very hard on the instillation and that it was only just if the police reinstalled it for me. Nevertheless – since he appeared to be shocked from my suggestion - I guess the German police are not used to be told how they should behave, what a chutzpah! Well, of course that did not work, and he refused.
After this phone conversation I called Kerstin Stakemeier, one of our professors. When she heard the story she quickly called Grossherr at the Jena police and had a similar conversation. Later on she called me back and I was guaranteed that none of the people I photographed and installed in the sewage would be bothered by the police.

So now I still have to go down to the police station and pick up the stuff. I’m trying to decide if I should reinstall my picture or put a sign explaining the story or maybe something else. The more I think of it, the madder I get. What where they thinking? I had my picture, my passport with all my information and a light shinning on it. Do they think that if I did not have permission or if I was doing something illegal or dangerous I make sure that I could be tracked down in a matter of minutes? I know that all criminals and terrorists leave fingerprints but even the bearded Semites from the middle-east are a bit more careful, not? And if you are already sending a police car from Jena to track me down can’t you wait an hour before you uninstall all of it? Maybe there is a reason for it being there lit up? There are a bunch of crazy art students running around town all week - but why think for a second that this has anything to do with it. I know someone complained and the policemen are not supposed to think. They have a protocol and they just follow, please German authorities, no thinking! Don’t try to be sensible! Follow the orders! Don’t ask questions until after you finished the job, we all know what will happen if every one will start thinking for themselves.
suspiciously dangerous Art a couple of hours before being removed

All the pictures with descriptions can be viewed in high-resolution in my Flicker.

Sewage canal on Johannisstraße:

(un)Documented Disappearance was installed on Monday and Tuesday (22-23/02/07).

All the pictures with descriptions can be viewed in high-resolution in my Flicker.

The installation of the project happened on the coldest day of the year we have had so far this year. In -8 degrees (Celsius) we picked up the sewage covers and set up the photos the best we could.

On Monday evening I installed the smaller pictures in the small corner sewage entrances with the wonderful help of Ali (locations are listed here).

Less than one hour after the installation, Osman’s face was burnt by a cigarette butt.

On Tuesday morning we installed the project with the help of workers from the city of Jena.

The covers of the canal each weighed 350 kg. Heiko Grübner and Mathias Fischer from the city of Jena did the job of lifting the covers. They were very helpful, extremly nice, and did a great job. Danke!

Sebastian Rallo is my beloved flatmate and friend, and is the they assistant for the project.

I could not have done it without him. Thanks!

At the end of our visit at Freienbessingen Refugee Camp, we had coffee Nazim’s and a friend and neighbor of Osman. Nazim who is in a similar situation, lives in a very small apartment with his whole family for many years and was waiting for permission to work. Nazim, who is from Macedonia, showed us how he watches TV from the Balkans with his satellite TV. After watching some terribly kitsch video clips on Albanian TV, I asked him to show what else he watches. Flipping through the channels I Suddenly saw a face that I recognized on Bosnian TV. Osman who saw my excitement quickly started translating to me from the subtitles. I then realized that I don’t need translation and that I was watching one of my favorite bands from Tel Aviv. I was so proud that my homeboys who play “original music and arrangements of Balkan, Jewish, Greek, and Mediterranean songs, seasoned with dueling guitars and a rock attitude,” where being promoted and honoured on a TV station of the place from which much of their music is influenced.
I shared my excitement and told everyone that they are from my hometown and I know them.
When I got home I sent them a email, Of course they were happy to hear my story and that an interview they gave in Spain to the Bosnian TV was shown. They also let me know that they are now touring around North America and Europe so check out their myspace and see if they are in a place near you. If it is not already clear, I highly recommend them, they are great live.

www.boompam.org