In 2024 and 2025, we worked together with our colleagues from Transmitting Stones in various residencies (in Basel and Tunisia) on and for the topic of mobility. A topic that has been on our minds for quite some time. We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to Rim Harrabi for her work.

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Our individual and collective experiences have repeatedly confronted us with the difficulties and systemic discrimination embedded in the Schengen visa procedures for North African artists and cultural professionals—whether as invitees or organizers. These obstacles have a tangible impact on the realization of artistic projects and contribute to the impoverishment of international cultural diversity.

To document this reality and analyze the mechanisms of mobility between North Africa and the Schengen area, we organized two research and creation residencies in Basel and Tunis (May and December 2024), bringing together artists and cultural practitioners.
From this work emerged:

• A report analyzing the importance of cultural mobility, the discriminatory mechanisms of the Schengen visa system, its human, artistic, and professional impacts, as well as recommendations for a fairer system that is better adapted to local realities.

• A fanzine offering a creative narrative through testimonies of those directly affected, describing the visa application process, the indefinite waiting periods, and the emotional and professional toll of such a fraught journey.

You can access these resources here:
-Report
-Digital fanzine
-Printable fanzine

We are fully aware that borders will not disappear overnight. But as long as they exist, we refuse to submit to their logic of exclusion. 

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Many thanks to all participants in the residencies: Sara Grütter (artist) / Khaled Bouzidi (Rhizome) / Rim Harrabi (Transmitting Stones, artist)/ Reda Mehenni (El Moutanakil, Transmitting Stones) / Aymen Gharbi (Interference Light Project, curator) / Sandro Bernasconi (Sable & Chaux, Transmitting Stone)

 

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