Make Your Own Passport is an installation and workshop-performance held in markets and public places, in which patrons are invited to make their personal passport while at the same time becoming part of a conversation and a spectacle.
The workshop-performance attracts participants with a colourful installation displaying templates of passports from 144 countries around the world. After a lucky dip that determines the participant’s country at random, and once the participant manages to find his/her passport in the installation, the facilitators will then guide participants through a bookbinding process to personalise their passports. When a passport is completed, the participant can take it home. There will be several participants that will get a “stateless” status as a result of the lucky dip. These participants will not get to make their own passports, will be introduced to others as stateless, and will get a story about a stateless person from the performer(s).
Make Your Own Passport has been repeatedly performed in markets and community centres in the two bordering cities in USA and Canada, Detroit and Windsor, with the initial participants as relaying facilitators. It has also captivated up to 300 active participants during the 4 days of Art Stage Singapore 2016, where the work was exhibited as part of Seismograph, the Southeast Asia Forum. On 21 August 2016 it was performed by curator Syafiatudina and artist Elia Nurvista as part of Concept Context Contestation: art and the collective in Southeast Asia (curated by Iola Lenzi, Vipash Purichanont and Agung Hujatnikajennong) at Kedai Kebun Forum, Jogja, Indonesia. On 17-20 October 2016 it was part of Next City’s World Stage at the UN Conference Habitat3, Quito, Ecuador, co-facilitated by Anthony Smyrsky and Laura Sofia Montoya Gomez.
On 18-20 November 2016 it was part of Connect Hyde Park Chicago, in collaboration with Hyde Park Art Center. Participants from this iteration took the role as relaying facilitators with The Children’s Museum of of Art and Social Justice on 16 January 2017, organised by curator duo Daris Jasper and Nia Jasper (Culture Saving), Chicago. Later in 2017 it was iterated with Chicago south-side’s after-school support MetroSquash, organised by participant Debra Noe, a teacher who also developed a lesson plan for high school students on surrounding topics of nation-state and citizenship to accompany the performance.
Wulia initiated the workshop-performance at Detroit’s Eastern Market with Art Gallery of Windsor (curated by Srimoyee Mitra) and Megan O’Connell’s letterpress studio Salt & Cedar, as part of Wulia’s 2014 North American residency series (Mexico, Canada and USA) co-supported by Arts Queensland and Australia Council for the Arts.
Make Your Own Passport (2014) Workshop-performance with material for making passport from 140 countries. Variable dimensions. Interaction view at Detroit's Eastern Market, 2014. Image courtesy of Rebecca Chung.
Make Your Own Passport (2014) Workshop-performance with material for making passport from 140 countries. Variable dimensions. Interaction view at Windsor's Downtown Farmers' Market, 2014. Image courtesy of Jessica Lukas.
Make Your Own Passport (2014) Workshop-performance with material for making passport from 140 countries. Variable dimensions. Interaction view at Windsor's Downtown Farmers' Market, 2014. Image courtesy of the artist.
Make Your Own Passport (2014) Workshop-performance with material for making passport from 140 countries. Variable dimensions. Snapshots of feedback from Windsor and Detroit interventions, 2014. Image courtesy of the artist.
Make Your Own Passport (2014) Workshop-performance with material for making passport from 140 countries. Variable dimensions. Interaction view at Art Stage Singapore, 2016. Image courtesy of the artist.
Make Your Own Passport (2014) Workshop-performance with material for making passport from 144 countries. Variable dimensions. Installation view at Connect Hyde Park Festival, 2016. Image courtesy of the artist.
Make Your Own Passport (2014) Workshop-performance with material for making passport from 144 countries. Variable dimensions. Interaction view at Connect Hyde Park Festival, 2016. Image courtesy of the artist.
Make Your Own Passport (2014) Workshop-performance with material for making passport from 144 countries. Variable dimensions. Interaction view at Connect Hyde Park Festival, 2016. Image courtesy of the artist.
Make Your Own Passport (2014) Workshop-performance with material for making passport from 144 countries. Variable dimensions. Feedback from participants at Connect Hyde Park Festival, 2016. Image courtesy of the artist.
Make Your Own Passport (2014) Workshop-performance with material for making passport from 144 countries. Variable dimensions. Interaction view at Habitat III UN Conference, at Next City's World Stage, 2016. Image courtesy of the artist.
Make Your Own Passport (2014) Workshop-performance with material for making passport from 144 countries. Variable dimensions. Interaction view at Habitat III UN Conference, at Next City's World Stage, 2016. Image courtesy of the artist.
Make Your Own Passport (2014) Workshop-performance with material for making passport from 144 countries. Variable dimensions. Interaction view at Habitat III UN Conference, at Next City's World Stage, 2016. Image courtesy of the artist.
Make Your Own Passport (2014) Workshop-performance with material for making passport from 144 countries. Variable dimensions. Participants swapping citizenship with statelessness at Kedai Kebun Forum, 2015. Image courtesy of the Syafiatudina.
Make Your Own Passport (2014) Workshop-performance with material for making passport from 144 countries. Variable dimensions. A participant's feedback at Habitat III UN Conference, at Next City's World Stage, 2016. Image courtesy of the artist.
