Faith, video, 7 minutes, 2001.

 

Faith and Fate are two short videos in which I make an analogy between illegal immigration and my work as an artist. 

 

Faith is an invasion of the Tate Modern museum in London and the placement of my photos in one of its rooms. It is about the desire to belong to a group. From an immigrant’s point of view, the group with better life conditions. Immigrants often have to make extreme actions like crossing the river at night to reach what they want. In this work I try to break a barrier that blocks the bridge that I want to cross. Having no success in crossing the bridge, I take the alternative path, which is crossing the river. When I reach my destination I go through two different situations that reflect my position in the art world as divided between belief and scepticism. First I throw my photos in the museum floor and leave. Then I place my photos on the empty walls of the East Room at the top floor of Tate Modern. I did that without the knowledge of the staff. The photos stayed on view for a full day, on a Sunday, for the same tourists and visitors that saw the other artworks officially in exhibition in the museum.

 

© Frederico Câmara 2001.