‘For the record’ is a soft listening session about so-called freedom to love and live within the liminal space of asylum process. It is a conversation recorded in 2022 between the queer couple, Mira, trans woman from Iran and Nanna, Danish artist and photographer. 

It is an invitation to lay down, in a bed of rosa, blue, black blankets while flipping through personal photographs from daily life moments, portraits, selfies,  
The audio is a conversational flow, playing in a loop that listeners can tap into at any point.

Mira grew up in Iran and came to Sweden in 2021 where she also lives today. 
Nanna grew up in Denmark where she still lives. 

They only live 25 minutes apart in the bi-national metropolitan area of Copenhagen (capital of Denmark) and Malmö (southern Swedish city). Every day more than 120 regional trains are passing a bridge across the sea Öresund. This bridge divides the border territory of the two nations Denmark and Sweden. 

When they first met, both of them studied at university. They both enjoyed the privilege to move freely, visiting each other, traversing borders. 

But Mira had already crossed the borders of her homecountry Iran for the last time. 
Her political activism, critical actions and queer identity as a trans woman posed serious threats to her personal safety that became too dangerous to risk. 
When Mira got accepted into a Swedish university, it was a way to escape out of Iran. But the clock was ticking. As her study visa ran out, her legal and social status changed overnight. She was no longer a regular international student but now an asylum seeker. 
Asylum seekers are not allowed to leave the country they are seeking asylum in. 
They live in an unknown state of captivity. 

Like any European citizen, Nanna could still travel like she had always done. The change of Miras legal and social status was a completely new situation to her as well. 
From one day to the other, love in-between national borders challenged both. 
How to love and live under the strict regime of asylum process? 
How to dream of any future? 

Speaking about the freedom to love or to follow ones heart suddenly becomes a matter of rights and privileges. 

The work ‘For the record’ documents through audio and photographs a past time when the waiting position was still the situation, the condition, the position for love.

'For the record' 2024

Collective Conversations: Membranosa (Hamburg) 2015

http://stadtkuratorin-hamburg.de/curating/membranosa-hamburg-collective-conversations/

Nanna Maria Wibholm