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Transit 8, 1999 Helsinki Airport Transit 4, 1996 Aéroport de Lyon-Satolas, France |
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| TRANSIT 4 | On 12 November 1996, I am at Satolas airport in Lyon. My destination is Yaoundé, via Brussels. Not long before, I had acquired a walking stick which I had entirely covered with the copper wire used in car motors or in ventilation systems. This stick could not go unnoticed. Therefore I took it with me to Satolas. To complete the picture, I had dressed up as an old man. During the identity check, the police noticed that my posture and outfit didn’t really tally with the 27-year-old registered in my documents. On top of that, the officers know full well that certain substances can be hidden in a stick. So I rapidly found myself surrounded by four policemen. It is clear that this stick is made of solid wood and conceals no viruses or secrets. Nevertheless, they kept at it relentlessly, trying to force it open from each angle. Physical effort proving useless, they then opted for a more scientific, more clinical approach. In fact, they placed the stick on a table as if it were a patient on a hospital bed. Leaning over the stick, the four men started to examine it meticulously with small laser beams. The scientific method proved as useless as brute force. They let me go. translation by Caroline Hancock |
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| TRANSIT 8 | On 15 August 1999, I arrive at Helsinki airport purposely without a visa in order to experience the “waiting areas”. Held in the customs officers’ quarters, I share the undignified treatment reserved for foreigners, who sleep on the floor, or on benches in cells with no windows or toilets, with complete lack of privacy and in unthinkably horrific conditions where standards of maintenance are incompatible with a basic respect for human dignity. |
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performances
