art action / video stills
In June 2000, with Non Registered Border Crossing (known as “Illegal Border Crossing“), I directly familiarised with border-crossing strategies that migrants have been using for decades. I trespassed across the Slovenian-Austrian border, which at that time was the border of the European Union, and where eight to nine “illegalized” people were captured per day.
For some administrative reason my application for Schengen visa in June 2000 was not taken into consideration. At the time I was based in Ljubljana and wanted to join an informal international artists gathering in Austria. So, I decided to undertake this art action in order to join them. My both way non registered border crossing was possible thanks to the great help of my friends who came from Austria, picked me up in Slovenia and who guided me throw tiny mountain roads to the Austrian territory. One of them risked a lot. We were equipped with detailed maps of territories we were going throw and with a small digital camera used for minimal documentation. It was exciting and still less stressful than the legal procedure I went throw few weeks earlier.
This project is a part of Crossing Borders Series (2000-2005) along with Waiting for a Visa (2000) and Looking for a Husband with EU Passport (2000-05), by Yugoslav born artist Tanja Ostojić.
By using her own body within different cultural and social contexts as a retort to various power games, Ostojić inevitably entered the realm of gender troubles. Her reflection on gender issues is focused on the economic and political phenomena that accompany the phantasm of the European Community that is shared by many Eastern European countries. In her project Looking for a Husband with EU Passport, she reveals and ironizes the truth about trafficking in women, prostitution, pragmatic marriages and all other “side effects” of transition.
(Suzana Milevska, “Spectacle of the Invisible”, in: NU, Nordic Art Review, vol. III, no. 5/01, 2001.)
TANJA OSTOJIĆ 