“Visa Reveal Party” is a grotesque European Union fever dream performance art piece, utilizing the format of the gender reveal party. I play into the narrative flow of my previous works, where after a marriage for a visa, comes the finalization of the process, with the birth of a new legal citizen. For this performance, I orchestrated an event in which I questioned the societal systems to which I must conform as a foreigner in Holland. It is an exploration of bureaucratic marginalization and the surreal intricacies of the visa process. The crux of this performance revolved around the revelation of whether or not I had gotten my freelance artist visa, a journey that spanned 311 days. From the 14th of September 2022 to the 22nd of June 2023, I navigated the bureaucratic labyrinth in anticipation of this life-changing document. It's worth noting that the visa's validity spans two years, calculated from the application date rather than the date of issuance.

Photography: Diana Putavet