The Residents : a script

2007-05-22T06:43:44Z

barry was an american that got on an airplane
he flew to europe to participate in an international artist residency.
when he got off the plane a facilitator from the host country took him to
the foreign police registered him as a two year resident and gave him the piece of paper that he needed

the residency was a great experience
so great that he decided to do another one
so he got on a plane and landed in another european city
and just like the previous international residency
there were many interesting people investigating all sorts of artistic ideas

but then after a few months he began to develop a suspicion concerning the legality of his stay

so he asked local management and then members of the board of directors and finally various government ministries if they could help and for one reason or another no one was able to resolve the issue

barry found himself in a grey area somewhere between local bureaucracy
artistic life
and getting that piece of paper
that says don't worry you are included

but he wasn't included

barry's life became very dark

he entered the black market work force
and found himself in a community of other undocumented workers
but they weren't working in an anonymous industrial sweat shop
no

they were working in an air-conditioned telemarketing call center in the business district

barry's birthday was in early november and he decided to throw a party
so naturally he invited his fellow artists in residence and there was cake
with thirty two big flaming candles on it
and barry leaned over and blew them out
and then he became sentimental for his homeland
for his brothers and sisters

and when the smoke from the candles dissipated barry saw a woman
and the woman said happy birthday my name is lucie

now barry had seen lucie before but they had never really spoken

barry smiled at her and said who are you i know you are an artist what kind of work do you make

and lucie replied
do not ask me who I am do not ask me to remain the same it's the morality of a civil state that regulates our papers we should be free when the time comes to express

barry cut a piece of cake and then said

i don't understand, you have to tell me more

lucie explained that she wanted to obtain a brand new state of the art biometric US passport

state of the art barry asked

yes Lucie said precisely that's the title of the work state of the art i want two passports the blue one and the red one and when i get them I will paint them both purple and sell them in my next gallery exhibition and when i sell them I will get more passports and make more art

how can you get the blue one barry asked

and lucie said I decided to reactivate my US citizenship

barry asked her how that was possible

and lucy said it was possible because she was born in the US and has a US birth certificate

so you have the right piece of paper? barry said

yes said lucie

then barry said, you know i think painting these passports is cliché and insensitive if you really consider the reality of migrants in a global economy

lucie replied, i'm an artist not a social worker

then they ate some cake

then barry told lucie that he was having trouble getting his own proper piece of paper
he says he is tired of being rejected by a negligent and uninformed bureaucratic system
and lucie said, no, they are not negligent and uninformed
that's not the case
it's more complex than that
we are involved in a failing system that perceives citizenship as linked to nation states
in this system an individual is either a citizen of a nation or not
they are in or out
but nation states can not cope with the pressures of the global economy
and well, as a result people get left on the side of the road

there was a silence and then lucie said
why don't we make a project together
and barry replied, a project about what
we will try and get our papers said lucie
but that's not really a project said barry
lucie said you're right it's more than a project
it's a projection
it's about potential
it's a way to perform a new space

Adam Leech & Vincent Meessen

Who was Joseph Jacotot ?

2006-05-08T21:01:00Z

Joseph Jacotot was an exiled French schoolteacher who discovered in 1818 an unconventional teaching method that spread panic throughout the learned community of Europe. Knowing no Flemish, Jacotot found himself able to teach in French to Flemish students from Leuven who know no French; knowledge, Jacotot concluded, was not necessary to teach, nor explication necessary to learn.

The results of this unusual experiment in pedagogy led him to announce that all people were equally intelligent. From this postulate, Jacotot devised a philosophy and a method for what he called "intellectual emancipation"—a method that would allow, for instance, illiterate parents to themselves teach their children how to read.

Find some basic biographical informations on Joseph Jacotot :

In French :
a short bio here
read him here

In English :
here

Potential Estate

The Residents : a script

Who was Joseph Jacotot ?