tourist

Journeys Festival International,  Portsmouth
Video 2012, 8:55 min

Twelve years later, after the journey from Kherson, Ukraine to the refugee center in Dessau, Germany I was granted European citizenship. Giving up the stateless passport during a surreal citizenship inauguration in Berlin, I have a video camera hanging around my neck. Continuously filming, the work captures a moment of the bureaucratic metamorphosis of a stateless citizen.

Before, during, and after the ceremony, I engage in conversations with people around me. Listening and tuning in with different coordinates, narratives, and anecdotes Tourist is a little journey through the dynamic space of stateless cues, ceremonial receptions, populist speeches, cursing, classical music, and collective singing.