Felipe Romero Beltrán – Dialect

European states have categorized the bureaucracies for crossing their borders. Anyone who avoids or transgresses those controls is subject to an irregular legal condition. During the last decades, each EU state has enforced its own immigration laws to regulate and control the movements of immigrants who enter their territory.

If a person enters irregularly into Spanish territory, and he or she has not reached the age of majority (according to a sworn declaration and medical controls), the custody and control of the immigrant remains in the hands of the state. Such custody and control are exerted through a dedicated Center, an internment building that houses immigrants in the same condition. Once the immigrant is legally declared an adult, he or she must wait one to three years to normalize his or her legal status in the country.

Dialect begins within a group of young immigrants who have recently crossed the strait (the maritime border between Morocco and Spain) avoiding border controls. In Seville, they settled while their legal situation is solved or diluted. The work is positioned close to the documentary practice, that is, the images are elaborated in collaboration on the group experiences. It results in a photographic series of the daily life and the expectations of this group in Seville. The photographs explore different events, where the body enters into dialogue with memories and the long time spent on the waiting period in Spain.

In the images
Monir El Komairi, Hamza Gharnili, Zakaria Mourachid, Mohamed Reda, Simo Rifi, Younes Braiki, Hamza Chabouni, Youssef Elhafidi, Bilal Siasse, Aziz Chinni.

© Felipe Romero Beltrán

Felipe Romero Beltrán, born in 1992 in Bogotá, is a Colombian artist based in Paris. His work explores social issues, particularly the tensions arising from new narratives in documentary photography. His practice is grounded in long-term projects supported by rigorous research. He holds a Ph.D. in Photography from the Complutense University of Madrid, an academic background that informs the conceptual approach of his practice.

© Felipe Romero Beltrán

This exhibition is made possible with the generous support of Institut français