Antonia Klimsza
Passporting
Installation
3D video on 43” screen,
Queue barriers
200 x 300 x 200 cm
Freedom, Movement, Borders, Passports, Identity
Young Europeans have grown up with freedom of movement and often take the benefits of a European passport for granted. However, for others, travelling is strictly regulated.
Klimsza’s video is exploring the concept of passports and shows how much impact this little book of identification can have on bodies and their ability to move. She mirrors current political situations and relations and exposes the politics of free travel in relation to the passport of different countries. Specific passports generate various conditions: having to pay and waiting for permission are restrictions people from less privileged countries face daily.
In her animation Klimsza depicts that even with all the right papers, crossing borders and being checked are experiences that differ, depending on where you are coming from. She suggests that reflecting on the passport as powerful tool of control of movement instead of seeing it as simple object, could be the first step towards rethinking this unequal bureaucratic system of “passporting”, a term introduced by Mahmoud Keshavarz.
