Permit F
(2008)

This is a performance called Permit F, realized by Al Fadhil inside Shifting Identities exhibition at Zürich Kunsthaus in Summer 2008, curated by Mirjam Varadinis. With Permit F the artist, in responding to the spirit of the project, try to focus an important aspect in the Swiss society today: the presence of the political refugees. Infact, the Swiss confederation is known as a land of asylum. Because of its neutral policy and its solidarity laws, the land has hosted in its cantons many people who have left their countries of origin for political or religious reasons, or because they belong to some ethnical and racial groups. In the Swiss Parliament, particular decrees were established in order to regulate the temporary admittance of refugees according to their situation. The permit granted to the refuge-seekers falls within category F.
But, this is a controversial permit, which allows only limited freedom and often its rules are not respected, that it contradict the principles of transparency and solidarity.
To realize the performance, the artist invited a group of exiles with their relatives and friends to a peaceful and creative public demonstration, started from the city centre of Zurich and concluded inside the museum under the big painting by Ferdinand Hodler.