ART.13

Article 13

Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948

Statement of intent

The concept of borders caught up with me through the stories of those who had crossed them. For me, it was the stories of young migrants who had been left stranded, whom my partner and I took in for a while. We listened to their accounts of their need to embark on an uncertain journey toward an equally uncertain future. The facts are there, dramatic, revealing the injustice. Skin color, country of origin, religion, and papers make a difference in whether or not you are welcomed in Europe.

It must be said that Schengen Europe is a castle protected by walls and moats, and we prefer not to hear the cries of those who are drowning. Sometimes we lower the drawbridge, as with the unprecedented solidarity shown in helping Ukrainian migrants who are victims of Putin’s invasion of Russia. This sudden benevolent solidarity raises questions when migrants who are victims of wars in Africa and the Middle East are herded together, turned away, subjected to police violence and pushbacks by coast guards. Whether a choice or a protective reflex, this violence challenges me because it reflects a self-serving empathy. Anyone who has seen Raoul Peck’s film “Exterminate These Brutes” or is willing to look at history understands that the global history of inequality is linked to the disturbing legacy of colonization. The enrichment of the West was built on the slave trade, land grabbing, the exploitation of resources, and the blood of indigenous peoples. It is impossible to deny that borders are a matter of money and nationalism. Unfortunately, this history continues…

I feel very white, privileged, and guilty as I write these words. I was born in the right place at the right time. I am not standing in front of barbed wire looking for a way through, nor am I climbing onto a raft to cross the sea. So I cannot speak on behalf of those who are trying to flee, to cross, and who will not give up in the face of rejection, injury, or a wall. I believe the victim’s story and listen as best I can as they talk about physical and abject borders!

It is with this necessary clarification that I approach ART.13, whose title comes from an article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This article reveals itself to me as one that recognizes humanity living on a sphere, a planet called Earth, whose only certain boundary is that of infinite space! It is also the point of view, as Gilles Deleuze explains in his ABC, where he defines the difference between left-wing and right-wing thinking. These are also words that resonate with me: “deconstruct,” “transform,” “live.” I question our ways of thinking about humanity based on the dissociation between the concepts of “nature” and “culture.” Another boundary, this one ontological, allows me to reflect on our understanding of Being, of becoming, of the possible and the impossible, of duration.

ART.13 is a theatrical piece about a world of arrogance that is collapsing but refuses to remain silent. The starting point is a bucolic scene in a domesticated garden, where a statue of a man stands on a perfectly manicured lawn, raised on a pedestal that separates it from the ground. A symbol of Culture, while Nature invites itself into the animal that emerges from a hole with an axe. Should the statue be knocked off its pedestal, or vice versa? Is this an attempt at revolution or the dawn of another mode of action? Destroy or Deconstruct could be the subtitle. Perhaps we lack other paths to transform ourselves. Paths that Joseph Beuys, Davi Kopenawa, Charles Stepanoff, Val Plumwood, and so many others talk to us about. Those of our ability to dream of other worlds or something else. Paths that would allow me to no longer be a woman, white, blonde, European, earthling in appearance (as defined by our society) and to cross spaces without borders since they no longer exist. Do not fear trials since it is an otherworld.

ART.13 is a tale that inspires wonder at the beauty of relaxation, evoking other paths to imagine…

Phia Ménard, January 25, 2023