Exhibitions

Illegal Oedipus: Sans Papiers

Opening: November 14, 2014, 15.00

Every year hundreds of thousands of persons are smuggled within the European Union’s borders for sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, forced begging and labour. Roma constitute approximately 80% of the total number of people who are smuggled from Hungary to Western Europe by cross-border criminal organizations.

Sans Papiers is an interactive installation that recreates for the participant the experience of being smuggled at the border area of a country like Hungary. With motion detection technology, the body of the participant is scanned and as she moves around the room, she faces the virtual representation of herself moving inside the truck that is projected on the wall, and can interact with the projection. The experience renders the sense of illegal border crossing, entrapment, and the practice of smuggling perceptible for the audience.

Based in Budapest, Illegal Oedipus is an art collective consisting of videographers, computer programmers and performers who design interactive art installations that aim to engage audiences on contemporary social issues such as human smuggling, and social and economic inequality. Combining motion detecting technology with traditional stage design, the installations of the group strive to integrate the visitor into a challenging experience that invites reflection. Illegal Oedipus members are Babak Arzani, Catalin Buzoianu, Peyman Fallahian, Ahmad Moradi, Aiski Ryokas and Behrooz Torki.

The exhibition will be opened by Mr. Michael Simmons, a veteran figure of the U.S. civil rights movements and the organizer of the Szentendre exchange.

Opening speech

Captions