[spectre] fadaiat*// borderline academy

[florian schneider]

(1) Coming soon: Fadaiat*// BORDERLINE ACADEMY June 18-26, 2005

(2) Looking back: Fadaiat 2004 -- a report from last years event



(1) Fadaiat*// BORDERLINE ACADEMY

Tarifa is a small city in the very south of Spain. Ten kilometers
of sandy beach, fresh winds and a medieval city center attract a
multitude of travellers: Surfers, tourists looking for recreation
as well as all sorts of transients from the northern parts of
Europe. But that's not all: All the year, but especially around
midsummer, at night hundreds of people go the other way around.
They come from the Maghreb or subsaharian countries and they are
heading northwards by crossing the Straits of Gibraltar by boat
and without papers.

The 29 kilometer wide stretch between Tangiers in the north of
Morocco and Tarifa keeps the smallest possible distance between
Africa and Europe. It cuts one of the most prominent border
regions in history filled up with flowery metaphors and bloody
realities, nowadays characterized by high-tech surveillance and
bodily resistance.

FADAIAT*// BORDERLINE ACADEMY will take place in Tarifa from June
17th to 26th, 2005. The old castle of "Guzman El Bueno" built in
the 9th century will host a series of workshops, seminars, public
events, concerts, parties, screenings, shows, theoretical and
practical experiments in arts, media and politics.

More than 200 artists and activists from all over Europe and the
Mediterranean are expected to meet for an hybrid academy project:
FADAIAT*// BORDERLINE ACADEMY will link practices of producing
art, culture and technology with current debates on movements,
mobility, migration and precarity. It aims to shape new notions
of collaboration and activism that reach out beyond traditional
patterns of primitive networking, moral binaries and
institutional critique.

 From and across the margins of the real the notion of a virtual
europe may arise that is based on the concepts of freedom of
movement and freedom of knowledge against the regimes of paranoia
and privatization, against the logics of inclusion and exclusion.

The ten days event is designed in a strictly modular set-up:
Individuals, groups, networks can plug into a common
infrastructure that consists of meeting spaces, communication
platforms, production facilities and local area networks in an
extraordinary challenging and inspiring environment.

THE OVERCODED BORDER

Like in 2004, there will be a wireless link across the Straits of
Gibraltar that establishes a temporary high-bandwith internet
connection between Tarifa and Tangiers.

FADAIAT*//FOOBAR.TV

Every night a video-program will be produced that presents the
unfolding events of the day, develops new audio-visual formats
and gets distributed through local TV as well as via
V2V-distribution on the net.

A MAP AND NOT A TRACING

Special attention will be given to the mapping of one of the most
advanced  surveillance systems that controls the flows of people,
material and immaterial goods. Tactical sea, air and land based
systems will be deployed and operated as a means of tactical
civil counter reconnaissance.

FORTRESSES OF EUROPE

Climax and turning point will be the celebration of freedom of
movement and knowledge around solstice, in the shortest night of
the year, from June 23th to 24th: Remote events will be organized
on a transversal line that crosses Europe from Andalucia to
Latvia.

INTERZONE

Between the opening on June 18th on the Alameda of Tarifa and the
closing event on June 26th in the castle of Tarifa various
workshops, shows and activities will happen in Tangiers, Morocco.


FADAIAT*// BORDERLINE ACADEMY is a collaboration between:
hackitectura, Indymedia Estrecho, D-A-S-H, KEIN.ORG, Delegación
de Cultura - Ayuntamiento de Tarifa, Entránsito, International
Festival (IF), Makrolab, Pact Systems, pirate cinema,
Unfriendly-Takeover, frassanito-network, Kingdom of Piracy (KOP),
Engage! Tactical Media and many others.

FADAIAT*// BORDERLINE ACADEMY is a follow-up event of
Transacciones / fadaiat in June 2004, NEURO--networking europe in
February 2004, and makeworlds in October 2001.


FOR MORE INFORMATION, PARTICIPATION AND CONTACT:

http://fadaiat.net

http://borderlineacademy.org

mailto:info at fadaiat.net

mailto:info at borderlineacademy.org


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(2) LOOKING BACK: FADAIAT 2004

The monstrous Sacred Heart of Jesus statue has turned its back to
the european continent, as if it wants to pay all attention to
the sea. A fresh breeze is coming up, as every evening in Tarifa.
A glaring red towboat of the coastguards, flanked by a speedboat
of the Guardia Civil, is slowly appearing behind the holy statue,
that is enthroning above the water on the very end of the
breakwater wall in its sulcated robe. On the tow line of the two
boats is a dinghy, that has obviously rousen the border guards.
On board are about 50 passengers, whose trip has come to an end
for now.

The high season has started in Andalusia. Every night hundreds of
illegal immigrants are starting out from Marocco to Spain, across
the sea, that is reasonably calm at this time. Only 29 kilometers
is the distance from Tanger in the north of Marocco to Tarifa,
the most southern point of Europe, at the outermost end of the
iberian peninsula.

The people that live here, are simply calling the straits of
Gibraltar "Estrecho", the narrows. For ten years, when the
Spanish state has joined the Schengen agreement, the area around
Tarifa has systematically been upgraded to one of the best
controlled borders of the world. The effects are almost not
identifiable at the first sight, but are at the same time even
more disturbing: nowhere is the banality of the border more
obvious than here. In the "capital of winds" as the windsurfing
paradies Tarifa is called, the processing of waves of illegal
immigrants is a business as usual, besides tuna fishing and
exalted tourism.

While the refugees, that are being taking into custody by the
coastguards, are going ashore, they are already awaited: a
prisoner transport van of the paramilitary Guardia Civil, police
and coastguards, as well as employees of the red cross, some
journalists and three TV teams are standing ready-to-receive at
the Sacred Heart of Jesus mole, the harbour fortification in the
back of the homonymous monument.

Everything that follows now is routine: the illegal immigrants
are being transported to the main quarter of the Guardia Civil in
order to assert their identity and origin. After that they are
being transferred to a first admission camp on a small island in
front of Tarifa and afterwards to the deportation prison in the
ferry harbour in Algeciras, 20 kilometers distant. "Whoever is
coming from Marocco, or from a country like Nigeria, where the
spanish state is having a treaty of withdrawal, will immediatly
be deported to Marocco" says Nico Scuglia, from the social forum
in Malaga. The young activist, originating from Argentina, is
working for years in different networks in the topic of
migration.

In summer 2001 Scuglia had organised a "noborder" action camp,
right here on the beach. Three years later he is here again. In
the old castle of Tarifa an unusual crowd is meeting for an even
more unusual event: human rights activists, union organisors,
migration experts from all over the Spanish state and different
parts of Marocco have occupied these old ruins from the tenth
century together with artists, filmmakers and net-activists for a
phenomenal experiment in terms of transnational networking.

The castle, that had been hard-fought by the Spanish and the
Moors for centuries, that was built by the caliph Abderramán III
on the remains of a roman military camp and that couldn't ever be
captured by Napoleon, is now a stage for a new kind of civil
disobedience in the age of new media and new migration movements.
For three days, "Transacciones/Fadaiat" was trying to map,
analyse undermine and cross the border, that is permanently
present up here on the rock, - with all means of communication
possible.

In the small chapel of the fortress squatters from Madrid discuss
with Maroccon Indymedia activists and with socilogists, that are
researching the shift of the border towards the south. Local
refugee supporters are exchanging with womens rights activists
from Larache, with community representatives from the
Rif-mountains, with spokespersons from the movement of the
unemployed as well as with labour leaders from the greenhouse
industries in Almeira. Radio and filmmakers are documenting,
mixing, editing and sending their conference contributions in the
internet. As soon as it gets dark outside, the DJ's and VJ's,
musicians and performance artists take the command over the three
inner wards.

The climax of the spectacle is a video conference via a wireless
connection from Tarifa to Tanger, that was accomplished by the
netactivists through an extra strong antenna. The small
transmitting mast, that only got the official administrative
permission the day before, is standing on the heighest of the
four towers of the fortress and looks more like a fan. Long wires
are meandering around the castle walls, run across the narrow
stairways and historic castle rooms, in which the activists go
into a huddle behind the screens.

The radar of the coast guards and the aircraft-carriers, that
patrol in the geostrategically important straits, is continuously
distracting the reception and so the pictures from the university
of tanger and from the small coffee house in the old town keep
collapsing after a short time; but Jose Perez de Lama, alias
Osfa, who is one of the organisors of the event, is satisfied. He
sees this way of low-tech activism above all as a symbol: "We
want to demonstrate how closely the topics freedom of
communication and freedom of movement are related nowadays."

The exposed geographical location of Tarifa seems to be the
reason why contradictions don't just collide abruptly, but why
also theses, that may sound abstract at other locations, become
obviously clear here. Where military, paramilitary and civil
regimes of control are overlapping with situations of economical
exploitation, where tremendous legal and illegal flows of traffic
have to be managed and every square centimeter is surveilled
around-the-clock, the special meaning of networked communication
technologies becomes obvious. But what if they don't only play a
major role in constraining freedom of movement, but also in
regaining it?

"We have waited for five days on the Maroccon coast, without
having something to drink nor to eat. At 2 o' clock in the
morning we entered the boat. The crossing to spain took us 13
hours. The steermen were specialists. May be that's why we spend
so much time on the water. We had to ship around warships - at
night around Maroccon ones, during the day around Spanish ones.
But as soon as we arrived we've already been expected by the
Guardia Civil.

Right in the middle of the conference the news arrive, that only
some kilometers outside of Tarifa three refugee boats have landed
in the military area. One of the refugees is Moussa, whom the
authorities will later name John and impute a liberian
nationality on him, even though he doesn't speak a single word of
English, but so he can be deported back immediatly. Surprisingly,
Moussa is being released after two days in the deportation camp,
because he has contact to one of the representatives of the local
refugee support network, that was negotiating about the release
of Moussa with the authorities for the two days.

"Moussa had unified the refugees that came from countries, where
only few people were present, who had been more or less by
themselves and in a very difficult situation, since they have no
community", says Nico Scuglia. Still in Marocco, in the
clandestine camps, in which the refugees are waiting up to months
for a chance to cross, communication structures play a decisive
role. Usually only larger communities are able to organise all
necessary infrastructure like mobil phones, addresses and
contacts to the different networks necessary.

 From this background, Scuglia is especially glad about the
response that the conference has created on the other side of the
straits, where mobile phones or even internet is far from being a
matter of course. Next year the activists from Al-Jwarezmi from
Marocco want to continue the event in Larache the other way
around.

Also Osfa from Sevilla sees the greates challenge in trying not
to waste a political project like "Transacciones/Fadaiat" in
platitudinous activism or fast media effects, but to take on the
complexity of a postmodern borderregime. "In the straits not only
the military and the economical streams of the empire are
crossing each other, they are also confronted with the
selforganised movements of a multitude, that is networking beyond
any border."

Nevertheless- at the end of the conference a sponteneous
old-school demonstration evolves: Just when the prisoner
transport van of the Guardia Civil is trying to bring the
refugees, that they captured during the day, off of the harbour
mole, the conference participants rush out of the fortress and
block the evacuation of the refugees for half an hour. But the
balance of power is characteristic: six activists are barricading
the harbour gate with a long banner, whereas another dozen of
activists is surrounding them on the street with videocameras in
theis hands.

At this moment Moussa is already in the deportation prison
Algeciras, 20 kilometers away: Together with 16 other people in
one dirty room, in which simple benches substitute beds and
blankets. After the ordeal of the crossing he could also not find
any sleep in his first night in Europe; only on the second day in
prison they received a small piece of cake to eat and a cup of
coffee. He doesn't understand the world anymore and is at the
same time pointing out the most blatant contradiction: "If they
would want to obstruct the way for us, they should then at least
do so, so we know right from the beginning, that the borders are
closed."

In the end, this is the hypocritical dimension of the postmodern
border regime, that is pretending to manage migration but is only
turning it into illegal migration, making it more difficult, more
expensive and more dangerous, but never prevent people from
migrating. No matter if at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Statue or
anywhere else around Europe.

(florian schneider)





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* Fada'iyyat or FADAIAT (arabic): literally "through spaces" --
"FADAIAT" means also "space-ships" or rather "space-clearing
engines". According to Fatema Mernissi "FADAIAT" is the name in
Arabic for satellite TV.