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Adel Abdessemed: „Salam Europe“, 2005, NMAC Fundation
Adel Abdessemed, with his project Salam Europe, shows a terrible aspect of immigration, that of the border crossings, the lack of freedom, with a piece made out of rolls of barbed wire in which the artist, with his particular poetic subtlety, lays bare the nightmare experienced by immigrants who try to go over the barbed-wire fence separating Europe from Africa in the city of Melilla, or by the prisoners of war held in Guantanamo—local situations with global implications. The strong physical presence of the coil of barbed wire has an anti-hypnotic function, critical of the belief in false promises, and promotes, on the contrary, self-management of one’s own life through a reserve of hope and energy, which in spite of being limited, induces us to daydream. The anti-hypnotic function that Salam Europe generates is the conduit through which modern society reencounters a universal motivating force driving towards a better future.
