A project about people for whom the route Russia-Belarus-Poland has become one of the few ways to get asylum in Europe
Brest. Republic of Belarus
In 2016 the city at the border of Poland and Belarus became the point of intersection of the migration crisis in Europe and the policy pursued by the Russian Federation and its certain entities. At the Brest railway station, tens of hundreds of people were trapped between the consequences of the Syrian war and another one invisible to many at home.
Personal dramas, political and religious persecution, humanitarian crisis, violation of laws, xenophobia, black market, economic inequality -
all these emerge at such moments in one place, along with human kindness, solidarity and the action of various organizations, communities and media seeking to influence the situation.
Such intersection of people's fate and global conflict of interests becomes also a starting point for different forms of cultural development of the place. New cultural practices are unable to help individuals, they cannot and should not solve legal issues, but they can build solidarity and understanding that such place is not a place of stories or objects. It is a place to enter a new life for many people, the place to appropriate new optics and experience (optics and experience of a refugee).
Regulation III
Refugees are people who had to leave the country of their permanent residency due to extraordinary circumstances. This definition became a legal term long before. Everything linked to it and decisive in destinies of many is determined by the Dublin Regulation, the third in a row.
The tightrope of refugees from Russia, particularly from Chechnya, who find themselves on the Belarusian-Polish border in Brest, is on the one hand a consequence of the crisis of distributed responsibility within European economies, and, on the other hand, horrifying wars and violence.
The Regulation III project focuses on the Chechen community in the framework of a legal term "refugee", on the features of life that are a subject of this third regulation, which are unseen by the majority of people who enjoy civil rights in their daily life. The medium for the project is chosen in accordance with the aesthetics of audio messages exchanged among many refugees via Whatsapp or Internet groups.
The project consists of three parts and several documentary material reading sessions which were open for participation to everyone in Brest.
Part I. Attempt
The train to Polish Terespol departs every day at 7:22 am. This is the main event which determines refugees' everyday life in Brest. Radio translattion 60 min lenght
Reading sessions I , II
9-10.08.2018 documentary material from refugees WhatsApp or Internet groups reading sessions Brest. KX space