As Far As My Fingertips Take Me - CANCELED

CANCELED: The performances of «As Far As My Fingertips Take Me» all had to be canceled because the artist Basel Zaraa could not enter due to corona regulations. As a replacement, we are offering «As Far As My Isolation Goes» online on Zoom in the festival center Waisenhausplatz. We will notify holders of a ticket for «As Far As My Fingertips Take Me».

Two people in the room. Mask. Seperating wall.

As Far As My Fingertips Take Me is an encounter through a gallery wall between an audience member and a refugee. Their arms touch without seeing each other. The refugee will mark the audience by drawing on their arm. The audience will listen to those who have recently challenged border discrimination.

Tania El Khoury commissioned musician and street artist Basel Zaraa who was born a Palestinian refugee in Syria to record a rap song inspired by the journey his sisters made from Damascus to Sweden. Through touch and sound, this intimate encounter explores empathy and whether we need to literally “feel” a refugee in order to understand the effect of border discrimination on peoples’ lives.

Our fingertips facilitate touch and sensations, but are also used by authorities to track many of us. In today’s Europe, a refugee’s journey can be set as far as their fingertips take them. The Dublin Regulation mandated a fingerprinting database across Europe for all refugees and migrants. The regulation often means that a refugee is sent back to where their fingertips where first recorded, without any regard to their needs, desires, or plans.