Tolerated stay is a legal term defined as “a form of protection , which allows an alien who has been refused of a refugee status to stay legally within the territory of a foreign state”.
Tolerated stay is uncertain tomorrow, combining aspects of refugee past and present. It condenses individuality towards which we are aliens; it is a kaleidoscope showing variations of perception of untold reality. The dilemma of responsibility for the stories we have heard and for their use becomes a problem we share – ignorance and oblivion are no longer an excuse. Tolerated stay is a state of apparent protection and safety. No one is "at home".
"... an alien is often the one who questions" – as if his/her very appearance has violated the peaceful reign of what is "ours" – as if it has disturbed an order of settling– as if it has challenged blissful state in which everyone can feel at home, and all things seem to stay in their places. As a stranger, an Alien – as it is often perceived – is seen as a problem. Activities of "Tolerated Stay" start from the category of hostipitality (the term coined by Jacques Derrida) outlined above.
The story uses a variety of means of artistic expression. It emphasizes most important issues of "a refugee existence": absurdity and hypocrisy of the system, political dependencies, legal restrictions, recurring memories and longing for family, country, normality, and full humanity. It exposes the state in which personal experiences of the war correspond with an uncertain future, apparent safety and crushing stagnation that refugees from countries devastated by conflicts have faced in Poland.
A site of the performance – a private apartment – becomes the space of disillusion and encounter, not only with the truth of particular testimonies, but also with other partakers of the action and with ourselves. Such community evokes questions. Not all of them can be answered. And not all the answers are platitudes.
The action "Tolerated Stay" has resulted of several-month process conducted at the initiative of the Centre of Independent Culture TeatrSzwalnia in Lodz and the Kana Theatrical Centre in Szczecin. The first presentations of the action took place in March 2013, as a part of the all-Polish campaign "Dotknij Teatru" [Touch a Theatre] in Lodz. They aroused interest if the audience. This process included studies that helped to understand the situation of refugees in Poland; meetings; classes and workshops for children from the Centre for Foreigners in Grotniki near Lodz, and numerous encounters with a certain family of Chechen refugees who reside in our country under the regulations of Tolerated Stay.
concept and implementation, script, interviews with foreigners: Weronika Fibich
narrator of the action, script: Ewa Lukasiewicz
installations: Justin Rochala
video material : Grzegorz Habryn (PSM)
photos and video material involving foreign family: Ewa Ciechanowska
music: Tomasz Krzyzanowski
editing a radio broadcast, collecting materials, organization and promotion of the project: Patrycja Terciak
collecting materials, organization and promotion of the project: Elżbieta Mentel, Katarzyna Skręt
substantive consultations, translations: Joanna Paliwoda-Szubańska
Special thanks to the family of Chechnya – Luiza and Adam with children Kheda, Abdul, Madina, Aisha and Elina – for discussions, encounters, and cooking together.
FILM
ZDJĘCIA
Tolerated stay is a legal term defined as “a form of protection , which allows an alien who has been refused of a refugee status to stay legally within the territory of a foreign state”.
Tolerated stay is uncertain tomorrow, combining aspects of refugee past and present. It condenses individuality towards which we are aliens; it is a kaleidoscope showing variations of perception of untold reality. The dilemma of responsibility for the stories we have heard and for their use becomes a problem we share – ignorance and oblivion are no longer an excuse. Tolerated stay is a state of apparent protection and safety. No one is "at home".
"... an alien is often the one who questions" – as if his/her very appearance has violated the peaceful reign of what is "ours" – as if it has disturbed an order of settling– as if it has challenged blissful state in which everyone can feel at home, and all things seem to stay in their places. As a stranger, an Alien – as it is often perceived – is seen as a problem. Activities of "Tolerated Stay" start from the category of hostipitality (the term coined by Jacques Derrida) outlined above.
The story uses a variety of means of artistic expression. It emphasizes most important issues of "a refugee existence": absurdity and hypocrisy of the system, political dependencies, legal restrictions, recurring memories and longing for family, country, normality, and full humanity. It exposes the state in which personal experiences of the war correspond with an uncertain future, apparent safety and crushing stagnation that refugees from countries devastated by conflicts have faced in Poland.
A site of the performance – a private apartment – becomes the space of disillusion and encounter, not only with the truth of particular testimonies, but also with other partakers of the action and with ourselves. Such community evokes questions. Not all of them can be answered. And not all the answers are platitudes.
The action "Tolerated Stay" has resulted of several-month process conducted at the initiative of the Centre of Independent Culture TeatrSzwalnia in Lodz and the Kana Theatrical Centre in Szczecin. The first presentations of the action took place in March 2013, as a part of the all-Polish campaign "Dotknij Teatru" [Touch a Theatre] in Lodz. They aroused interest if the audience. This process included studies that helped to understand the situation of refugees in Poland; meetings; classes and workshops for children from the Centre for Foreigners in Grotniki near Lodz, and numerous encounters with a certain family of Chechen refugees who reside in our country under the regulations of Tolerated Stay.
concept and implementation, script, interviews with foreigners: Weronika Fibich
narrator of the action, script: Ewa Lukasiewicz
installations: Justin Rochala
video material : Grzegorz Habryn (PSM)
photos and video material involving foreign family: Ewa Ciechanowska
music: Tomasz Krzyzanowski
editing a radio broadcast, collecting materials, organization and promotion of the project: Patrycja Terciak
collecting materials, organization and promotion of the project: Elżbieta Mentel, Katarzyna Skręt
substantive consultations, translations: Joanna Paliwoda-Szubańska
Special thanks to the family of Chechnya – Luiza and Adam with children Kheda, Abdul, Madina, Aisha and Elina – for discussions, encounters, and cooking together.
FILM
ZDJĘCIA
