Felipe Romero Beltrán

Through Recital, Felipe Romero Beltrán contemplates the bureaucratically opaque borders of European nation-states and the labyrinthine processes of gaining their citizenship. In recent decades, each EU state has enforced its own immigration law to regulate and control the movements of immigrants who enter their territory. In Spain, if an immigrant entering the region irregularly is not a legal adult, the state assumes their custody and control—exerted through a dedicated Center or internment building that houses them. Once these immigrants attain adulthood, they may have to wait for one-to-three years for a confirmation of their legal status.

The work features a group of young immigrants who crossed the Strait—the maritime border between Morocco and Spain—avoiding border controls. The photographs, part of the series Dialect, explore the daily life and expectations of this group in Seville, where their bodies enter into a dialogue with their memories, during the time they spent waiting in Spain. Recital comprises video recordings of a performed action: a reading of the initial pages of the Spanish immigration law, the document that regulates the legal statuses of the young men doing the reading. Acquainting themselves with a new language, their struggle to peruse the bureaucratic document that will determine their fate is evident. There is a palpable gap between the body and the language that seeks to control it.

Recital is a reflection on the crises in the lives of those who migrated to Europe, despite a global pandemic, and their continuing pursuit of a better future.