The art project, launched in 2001, described itself as a “federal association” and thus as a representation of the interests of companies specializing in services related to “undocumented cross-border passenger traffic”.

Under the beautiful motto “Mobility is our goal”, Farida Heuck, Ralf Homann and Manuela Unverdorben already worked at a relatively early point in time, if one takes the media and public interest as a yardstick, in an artistic, critical and activist manner against those argumentations that want to restrict the right to freedom of movement on the basis of racism in principle.

What is satirically exaggerated here, namely the constantly intensified illegalization of flight and migration, clearly shows that it is the border policy of the European Union that turns people into clients of smugglers and traffickers. In a “reality” that deliberately does not allow or create alternatives to these dangerous and costly routes.

In an interview, co-founder Ralf Homann describes that “reality” this way:

“A standard figure from police reports is always that the Federal Border Guard or other authorities in the EU, would have freed refugees from the clutches of a smuggler or trafficker. So to speak, the border policeman as a hero who frees refugees, migrants. The fact is, on the other hand, that this ‘liberation’ is only ever in favor of subsequent detention in deportation facilities or deportation.”

Another starting point of the project is the documentation of the image change that the activity of “refugee assistance” has undergone in public discourse in recent decades – from an activity with an enforceable right to a fee in the context of the so-called “Cold War” to a full-scale criminalization, which, moreover, is not infrequently constructed by state authorities as the actual cause of migration movements.

Unfortunately, the project page schleuser.net is no longer online, but more information and photos can be found on the websites of the participating artists linked above. In addition, another interview can be found here and a short article here. And at this link there is a short video trailer of the project.

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