An anti-racist festival with an uncompromising stance in favor of freedom of movement. Berlin, 7th – 9th August
What are the impacts of the border system on mental health? We want to go beyond a theoretical and abstract way to talk about borders, to bring the discourse back to the real effects that borders have on real people.
“Mental health” immediately gets closer to the humanity of the people affected by the border system, since it refers to their personality, feelings, emotions. It supports a more rounded narrative of people on the move, without reducing them to a statistics or to some global trend. It highlights often forgotten consequences of the racist border system, running counter its project to dehumanize the very people who defy it and cross borders.
This edition of the Scirocco Festival builds on the previous two. The first year we looked at what borders are, who makes them, who is really a criminal (remember our slogan?: “What is the crossing of a border compared to fabricating the border?”). Last year we mentioned practical ways to defy the border system, understanding police violence and the camp system and how to react to those.
One thing did not change. Remember Scirocco, the warm wind blowing from the South in the central Mediterranean sea, facilitating dangerous sea-crossings? That wind still has no passport.