Elena Mazzi | PERFORMING THE SELF – THE INTERVIEW

11.1.2018 > 18.1.2018 | Bruxelles

From the 11th to the 18th of January, Elena Mazzi will present Performing the self – the interview, a video installation created in collaboration with the searcher Enrica Camporesi on the occasion of her 4-month residency at ThalieLab.

This work stages the impossible conversation between a protection officer and an asylum seeker just before the interpreter arrives. Drawing on interviews with protection officers, asylum seekers, recognized refugees, lawyers and social workers as well the academic literature, “Performing the self – the interview” zooms in on the protection officer and the asylum seeker as co-producers of a dialogical but reliable and consistent life story, a new and reasonable plot whose crucial goal is to be awarded with the asylum status. Such interview becomes thus a real “make or break moment” in the life of the asylum seeker. What might happen before such an overloaded conversation begins? “Performing the self – the interview” builds up an imaginary space that redefines the existing protocol of questions and answers, mutual expectations and power relations.

17/01/2018 – 18:00>21:00
Elena Mazzi Book-launch

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Opening hours: 14>18:00 and by appointment at event@thalielab.org
Free entrance
Closed on Sunday 14th and Monday 15th