Consider Yourself Invited

Two North African artists were invited to Switzerland to speak about their work: one who meets the necessary visa requirements to enter the country and one who doesn’t. These two scenarios, to be presented at the Belluard Festival, are the starting points for a story that isn’t afraid to touch upon our collective prejudices and the controversial question looming behind its creation:

Will the visiting artist overstay his visa after his talk to start a new life in Switzerland?

Thoughts

Thoughts

Thoughts about Mohamed Arejdal: Français / Deutsch
Thoughts about Mohammed Laouli: Français / Deutsch

---

Presenting both of the following scenarios will allow Belluard Festival visitors to experience two different possible outcomes that reflect upon the realities of border crossing.

SCENARIO 1
An artist was invited to Switzerland, but he did not fulfill the visa requirements.

SCENARIO 2
An artist was invited to Switzerland, and his visa application was accepted.

For Scenario 2, an artist talk will be held on Sunday, June 28th at 8pm titled:

ART PRACTICE BEYOND THE FENCE
or why the artist may overstay his visa to start a new life after this talk.

In addition to the artist talk, both of these scenarios will be incorporated into separate but identical exhibition spaces at the Belluard Festival, where each artist’s body of work is exposed in documentary form, and the spectator is confronted with the curatorial underpinning for each given situation.

Upon entering the festival, spectators are assigned a number, the significance of which will be revealed once inside the two exhibition spaces. Each space will unveil a number leading to a different outcome based on the status of the artists’ visa applications.

In the rejected artist’s space, the selected number will send a visitor to North Africa to the artist talk of Mohamed Arejdal, held in his home.

In the accepted artist’s space, the holder of the selected number will be asked to host the above mentioned artist talk with Mohammed Laouli in their own home, taking into account both the political sensitivity of the project’s underlying questions and the artist’s own motivations.



Borders are plural, so any project dealing with the questions they raise must be too.

Information

Information

Consider Yourself Invited takes place June 25-28 in Fribourg. For opening times and the exact address, see Belluard Bollwerk International. For live updates see the FB event.

The artist talk with Mohammed Laouli will take place on Sunday, June 28th at 8pm in a private apartment in Fribourg.

---

DOWNLOAD
Thoughts about Arejdal: Français / Deutsch
Thoughts about Laouli: Français / Deutsch
Biographies: Arejdal / Laouli
Press: FN Newspaper / Surprise Magazine / La Liberté

---

CREDITS
Documentary pictures by Juliette Chrétien. Additional installation views by Youssef Ouchra, Javier Melian, Francisco Alejandro, Chourouk Hriech, Aziz Nadif, Mohssin Harraki, and Ly Mamadou.

Texts about Arejdal by Valentine Umansky, about Laouli by Sophie Lapalu, and about the project by Sandino Scheidegger in collaboration with Jeremy Cohen. German translations by Anja Dirk.

---

THANKS
For sharing your insights on the Moroccan contemporary art world: Siham Halli, Dr. Mehdi Zouak, Bérénice Saliou, Younes Rahmoun, Mohammed Laouli, Mohamed Arejdal, Maud Houss, Touda Bouanani, Randa Maroufi, Hassan Quazzani, Mohamed Fariji, Léa Morin, and Marie Moignard.

---

SUPPORT
This project is a Random Institute production for the Belluard Bollwerk International, supported by Migros Kulturprozent and Kanton Fribourg. The on-site display is supported by Ernst & Olga Gubler-Hablützel.