Le touriste et le migrant
La recherche de l’authenticité
Immobilized Travelers
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‘Passport, please’. This is where our different travels begin. One of our passports is ranked the second best in the world, and magically erases borders as it goes. It enables exploration, speedy boarding, and suits a mind of restless curiosity; but we will put it aside for the time being. The other passport guarantees its traveler a place of restless, protracted waiting in the back of the queue, a life under surveillance, and a secured seat in ‘deportation class’. It will test the endurance of its holder. This other passport will guide us through the unpredictable geographies of law enforcement that condition our (im)mobility.
Ours is a world of polarized and unevenly distributed mobility rights. It is one of fantastic travels, of exploration, speed, and interconnectedness; of conquest of time and space, and multiplications of real and imagined belongings. But it is also one of immobilization, not only manifested by the brutal border spectacles at the fringes of Western states’ geographies, but also in the banal practices of paperwork, enforced idleness, dissynchronicity, of hijacked dreams and forsaken futures.
What makes any of us into a traveler? ‘Traveler’ depicts a normative category as much as a descriptive one. Our romanticisation and awe of the traveler, mobile in heart, body and mind, is rooted in the sedentarist assumption that people do not move unless they have to. We are all assumed to ‘belong’ somewhere in Liisa Malkki’s (1995: 512) ‘national order of things’: in language, in politics, and in our imagination, our lives belong to a nation, we are its supposed natives, and are supposed to accept it as our natural mode of being. The national, bordered order has become a natural order of things. This nativist narrative is materialized in the passport, which, as John Torpey (1998: 239) notes, is a manifestation of states’ monopolization of the legitimate means of movement. Traveling involves entering into a negotiation with the state over the conditions of mobility. Therefore, passeport historically denoted authorization to pass through a port; to leave one’s city or country and enter into another while retaining one’s manifested belonging. The visa, in turn, signified the verification of the passport and divides travelers into recognized and invisibilized bodies.
One of our passports magically erases borders. The other guarantees its traveler a place of restless waiting and a secured seat in “deportation class”
Our passport is not validated, nor will it open ports; instead, the mundane, administrative practices of passport controls will immobilize its holder and keep him or her under close monitoring. To be on the move with this passport is to be unauthorized, banned, and ‘illegal’; a pathology to a nation-state system whose administrative apparatuses will not rest until the fantasy of a national order has been restored and our travelers are fixated and returned to where they ‘belong’. This fixation takes place in space as well as in time. Traveling with our passport is associated with immobilization, stuckedness, and waiting: for the passport to be produced, for the visa applications to be processed, for the travel bans to be lifted, and for the recognition of our legal personhood that never occurs and therefore, when all means of legalization have been exhausted, for whatever chance we get to move on as an unauthorized, commodified shadow of a traveler.
As unauthorized travelers, we rarely choose our destination. We are ‘displaced’ from the imaginary place we were once assigned, and emplaced in transit zones, asylum camps, or marginal spaces where we await the state’s recognition or rejec- tion. We have become immobilized travelers, and can neither choose to settle nor to move on. In this liminal space, we might exist alongside others in society, among authorized travelers and sedentarists; we take the bus, read the news, talk about the weather, we pass time. Yet we perform these everyday acts knowing we lack the authorization to do so. They therefore called ours a temporary pseudo-reality.
We asked those who are tasked to guard us how long they could keep us immobi- lized in these marginal places. They answered, on behalf of the state: There is no time limit: the idea is that you could remain here until you die. Until then, everyday at five pm, we are served a dinner we never asked for. We appealed our rejection of autho- rization, but our files are resting under a pile of others with high numbers and dried coffee stains and we are told to wait. They say we should start preparing for a future elsewhere. Every now and then, we are asked questions about our passport. We are asked to perform the same ritual that we once hoped would enable us to travel, but through which we learnt that our passport immobilizes us. Now, our passport will enable our forced removal, and displacement here changes content: we risk being forcibly displaced, not from ‘our’ place of birth but from our place of want. Our passport will effectively displace us to the place where we are told we belong.
This makes us ask: For how long can we remain immobilized and still be travelers? We are stuck in a state imaginary of a national order that, as William Isaac Thomas (1928: 572) put it, becomes ‘real in its consequence’ for unauthorized travelers. We are travelers, but not all travelers are conceived as equal. What remains for us is to imagine things differently.
Lost in space
CHAMANDO ELA
Les embouteillages autoroutiers
Techno-rhizome : le devenir d’un genre musical
Automotive
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Une automobile de course avec son coffre orné de gros tuyaux tels des serpents à l’haleine explosive [...] est plus belle que la Victoire de Samothrace, Filippo T. Marinetti, Manifeste du Futurisme, Le Figaro, 20 février 1909.
Automotive, cette ode post-futuriste au mouvement, au temps et à la technologie, a pour moteur des musiques électroniques comme lancées dans la course répétitive des circuits automobiles, où les voitures effectuent un étrange parcours… plutôt, c’est leurs pilotes qui entreprennent un voyage post-humain, où la grande vitesse et les technicités requises pour conjurer les dangers des divers tracés s’unissent pour défier les limites séparant les êtres humains des machines. L’hommage à la Porsche 956c Rothmans est explicite dès le titre des différents morceaux, ainsi que la référence à trois segments de circuits européens bien connus pour être techniquement périlleux : Le Mans, Spa-Francorchamps et Nürburgring.
« Nous voulons chanter l’amour du danger, l’habitude de l’énergie et de la témérité. (…) Nous déclarons que la splendeur du monde s’est enrichie d’une beauté nouvelle : la beauté de la vitesse », Filippo T. Marinetti, Manifeste du Futurisme , Le Figaro, 20 février 1909.
Le périple d’Automotive s’ouvre sur « Les Hunaudières », longue ligne droite où les bolides et les beats filent à toute allure, fonçant inexorablement vers la ligne d’arrivée. À chaque virage du circuit, les chicanes ralentissent les moteurs – le son s’interrompt alors – mais ceux-ci repartent de plus belle et accélèrent, indomptables, tandis que murmure en sourdine, vers la toute fin, le rugissement originel de la Porsche 956c de 1983.
Le deuxième morceau, « Eau Rouge », évoque la rivière qui traverse le circuit belge de Spa-Francorchamps et donne son nom à un fameux raidillon ; le parcours se développe de manière retorse, avec un enchaînement de virages en montée contraignant les concurrents à des accélérations brèves et soutenues. Les séquences soniques reproduisent le drame de la difficulté et des risques du circuit, courbe après courbe ; les manœuvres vrillent, le volant vibre, et la voiture gravit la pente, chevillée avec la volonté de fer de son pilote.
Enfin vient « Nordschleife », l’un des deux tracés du célèbre circuit allemand de Nürburgring, qui serpente autour du château de Nürburg ; la Boucle Nord est aussi connue comme l’Enfer Vert en raison de ses épuisantes difficultés techniques, de sa longueur et des hautes haies qui la rendaient autrefois encore plus dangereuse. Le morceau évoque le segment fermé en 1976 suite au crash tragique de Niki Lauda. Le circuit rapide et technique de près de 23 kilomètres résonne dans une séquence claire et minimale, où l’on ne décèle pas d’éléments superflus ; le groove est à la fois aigu et doux, chaque sonorité suit docilement les autres, et la partie centrale semble vouloir traduire le triomphe du contrôle humain sur la machine – bien qu’il ait justement échappé au pilote autrichien. Un passage plus lourd interrompt un moment cette fluidité ambiante avant de se dissoudre dans le goulet final et hypnotique, à l’image de l’ouverture du nouveau circuit en 1984, avec la participation du jeune Brésilien Ayrton Senna.
« Je lâche enfin tes brides métalliques... Tu t’élances,
Avec ivresse, dans l’Infini libérateur !... (…)
Plus vite !... encore plus vite !...
Et sans répit, et sans repos !...
Lâchez les freins !... Vous ne pouvez ?...
Brisez-les donc !...
Que le pouls du moteur centuple ses élans !
Hurrah ! Plus de contact avec la terre immonde !...
Enfin, je me détache et je vole en souplesse
sur la grisante plénitude
des Astres ruisselants dans le grand lit du ciel ! »,
La Ville Charnelle, À MON PÉGASE, Filippo T. Marinetti, 1908.
Texte : Claudia Attimonelli
Musique et montage : Distant Memories
Noi vogliamo cantare l’amor del pericolo, l’abitudine all’energia e alla temerità. (…) Noi affermiamo che la magnificenza del mondo si è arricchita di una bellezza nuova: la bellezza della velocità. Un automobile da corsa col suo cofano adorno di grossi tubi simili a serpenti dall’alito esplosivo… un automobile ruggente, che sembra correre sulla mitraglia, è più bello della Vittoria di Samotracia.
Filippo T. Marinetti, Manifesto del Futurismo, Le Figaro, 20 febbraio 1909.
Automotive, un’ode post-futurista al moto, al tempo, alla tecnologia attraverso tracce musicali elettroniche che inseguono il movimento ripetitivo dei circuiti automobilistici. Strano tipo di viaggio quello delle vetture nelle gare automobilistiche, è piuttosto il pilota ad intraprendere un percorso che si va definendo come un viaggio postumano, dove l’alta velocità e i tecnicismi richiesti dal superamento della pericolosità dei tratti, si alleano per mettere alla prova i limiti che sanciscono la distinzione tra esseri umani e macchine. Sin dai titoli delle tracce si esplicita il tributo alla Porsche 956c Rothmans così come il riferimento a tre noti segmenti di circuiti europei considerati tecnicamente pericolosi: Le Mans, Spa Francorchamps e Nürburgring.
Il viaggio di Automotive si apre con Les Hunaudières, il lungo rettilineo dove automobili e beat sono lanciati ad alta velocità così come la traccia che procede inesorabilmente incalzante verso la sua meta. Ad ogni curva del circuito le chicanes fanno rallentare i motori – e lì che sentiamo interrompersi il suono – per poi riprendere terreno e accelerare, inesorabile mentre sul finale sussurra in sordina il rombo originale della Porsche 956c del 1983.
La seconda traccia è « Eau Rouge »: prende il nome dal fiume che scorre sotto il celebre punto del circuito Spa Francorchamps, l’antico autodromo belga; esso presenta uno sviluppo contorto causato da una combinazione di curve destra-sinistra in salita, da percorrere con accelerazioni brevi e sostenute. Le sequenze soniche riproducono il dramma rappresentato dalla difficoltà e dai rischi nell’affrontare il circuito curva dopo curva, si avvitano le manovre, il volante vibra, l’automobile si arrampica insieme alla volontà di ferro del pilota.
Infine giunge « Nordschleife », l’anello del noto circuito di Nürburgring che si snoda intorno al Castello omonimo in Germania, detto anche Inferno Verde a causa delle estenuanti difficoltà tecniche, della lunghezza e delle alte siepi che in passato lo rendevano ancora più pericoloso; la traccia narra di un punto chiuso nel 1976 in seguito al grave incidente occorso a Niki Lauda. Una pista veloce, tecnica e lunga quasi 30 chilometri risuona in una sequenza pulita e minimale, dove non si avvertono elementi superflui, il groove è al contempo morbido e acuto, ogni sonorità segue gentilmente le altre. La porzione centrale sembra voler imitare il trionfo del controllo umano sulla macchina. Proprio ciò che non fu possibile al pilota brasiliano che si schiantò tragicamente. Un verso greve fa da contrappunto alla fluidità prima di sciogliersi nella ipnotica stretta finale.
Celebrando la modernità delle macchine attraverso il suono della techno, Distant Memories suggella l’ibridazione irresistibile del metallo con la carne, avvinti dall’alta velocità in un viaggio perpetuo e circuitale, dove asfalto e linee di forza conducono i piloti nell’incantesimo della corsa. Il futurismo si sorpassa nell’automobilismo post-moderno.
Allento finalmente
le tue metalliche redini,
e tu con voluttà ti slanci
nell’Infinito liberatore!
Più presto!... Ancora più presto!...
E senza posa, né riposo!...
Molla i freni! Non puoi?
Schiàntali, dunque,
che il polso del motore centuplichi i suoi slanci!
Urrrrà! Non più contatti con questa terra immonda!
Lussuria e Velocità, Filippo T. Marinetti, 1921.
Tracce e montaggio: Distant Memories
Testo: Claudia Attimonelli