Alina and Jeff Bliumis GLOBAL REACH INC.
2011
A body of work titled Global Reach Inc. thoughtfully examines the contemporary movement and relocation of people around the world as well as the growing commercialization of immigration. Transforming the exhibition space into the headquarters of the fictitious travel conglomerate - Global Reach Inc. - we have created a world where mobility is fluid and visas are cursory. Both the physical and the performative aspects of the work speak to the dissonance between those who want to move and those in this world that need to move.
WHICH COUNTRY IS THE BEST TO MOVE TO?
2010-2014, Series of 11 works on paper, Pigment print, enamel, 30 x 44 inches each, Unique
In the collection of MAC VAL, Musée d’art contemporain du Val-de-Marne, France
MIGRATION A TO Z
2010-2011, 195 postcards, 5.5 x 4.25 inches each, Edition of 3
Ed 1 in the collection of Musée national de l’histoire de l’immigration, Paris, France
Migration A to Z is a collection of 195 uniquely designed postcards, one for each independent country, arranged in alphabetical order. For each postcard, we used relevant landscapes to replicate generic postcards. In the middle of each, we placed an insert selected from government immigration websites, visa services, travel agencies, immigration-lawyer ads, news articles, online forums, Facebook or YouTube.
Migration is presumed to be a problem of only well-off countries overwhelmed by renegade immigrants and transient populations, but today all countries confront some such form of trespassing. In our research, we found a news headline from May 19, 2009 that reads, "Two Tajik Families Illegally Crossed Border Into Afghanistan To Live In Islamic Country," and on May 11, 2010, we encountered a Yahoo forum user inquiring how to move to North Korea to teach English. Each country develops a unique set of immigration policies. They have slogans like "Australia is Looking for You," "Ghana Immigration Service: Friendship with Vigilance" or "Romania Office for Immigration: Legality, Transparency, Respect." They secure borders, complicate visa processes and contribute to the global immigration bureaucracy and business.
The installation encompasses the often-homogeneous promotional ephemera of tourism and immigration. The countries so whimsically promoted both feed the global immigration business and create stricter conditions for those willing (or needing) to relocate. These generic representations carve singular national identities, but the subtext unites each government in the dilemma of both attracting and controlling newcomers.
RELOCATION CONSULTING SERVICES
