We Sell Reality: Love File
In 2022-2023 we invite We Sell Reality, a Dutch collective of undocumented refugees, to develop their work Love File. We Sell Reality not only makes the consequences of the Dutch and European discouragement policy towards refugees visible, but also tries to make a difference on a practical level for the members of the collective. Love file is about one of the possible paths to take to get out of limbo.
We Sell Reality is a social rebellion label which is set up as a collective with an open source character. We Sell Reality makes products and installations and creates performative interventions in public space. The team consists of around 15 social designers. Most members of the collective came here as refugees and are in limbo. The makeup of the team can change throughout various projects, who would like to join is welcome.
We Sell Reality reflects on the paradox of closed borders for one and open borders for the other. For immigrants without wealth, these borders prove to be almost impossible to pass. Whereas the same borders are easy to pass for someone with a European passport, both physical and for trading purposes. We Sell Reality makes visible the dependency that occurs for some as a consequence of this paradox. The We Sell Reality team develops products and presentations with the aim of providing insight into the lives of undocumented refugees.
Projects by We Sell Reality give expression to a failing Europe and its asylum policy, but also to people’s will to live, disrupt, proudness and love. We Sell Reality simultaneously makes the reality of vulnerable survivors visible and seductive. Where the market and the survival of the fittest apply, We Sell Reality shows the reality of people in the most vulnerable position.
Since the beginning of 2021, Framer Framed (Amsterdam) opened it’s space for We Sell Reality. The collective has been working to visualize their experience with deals the EU makes to keep refugees outside the continent. The exhibition Powerplay – Deals All Over (2021) is a colourful installation about the systematic exclusion of refugees from Europe, in the form of a toy shop for children.
