ID. Un proyecto criminal de Ruben Santiago para Passage Souterrain_Guerrilla Gallery

ID
A criminal project by Ruben Santiago

Opening today –Saturday 14th april- at 20h.
Passage Souterrain_Guerrilla Gallery
Avenida de Nueva York, París,

About the projet:
For the past years, Ruben santiago has been collecting passports,
identity documents and credit cards from robberies carried out by
burglars in the streets of Barcelona.
Between the years 2000 and 2003, robberies to tourists happened to a
constant rhythm in the historic center of the city, where I lived.
The narrow, labyrinthine and badly lit streets of this zone created an
ideal set for the fast flight of the assailants and offered
innumerable points where to quickly empty the content of the stolen
bags, get the cash and abandon the remainders.
For his project in the Passage Souterrain, 25 of these documents have
travel to Paris camouflaged under the appearance of artistic objects.
To accomplish this, they have been framed as art-works, signed and
numbered by the author.
They have been transported by a company specialized in shipment of
works of art, being adjusted to all the usual bureaucratic
requirements. By doing so, the artistic system becomes a screen to
conceal the crime, for the possession of this material is a criminal
activity by itself, and therefore, a punishable situation.
It is a crime, on the other hand, held against «the State», since the
documents do not belong to the individuals, but to the states of which
they are citizens.
Once in Paris, the documents will be despoiled of their «artistic
camouflage», installed in the walls of the Passage Souterrain.
Becoming available material for anyone who may wish to take them, they
recover their criminal origin.