WE'VE GOT A "TWO-FIVE" HERE...!

Yes, Bart and I are back in Detroit again. This time for only a week, to catch up with our friends, as well as to meet new people for future exchanges. We also brought the publication that we’ve made with Nikos and Joao about their stay in Detroit and the three stations that followed afterwards in The Netherlands and Germany. And we also brought the whole “Archive of Impressions” that we exhibited in our Expodium space last October.

When we arrived at the Detroit airport, this time it was me who was picked out of the queue at Customs for a thorough check (who are you? What are you doing here? Where are you staying?). The lady at the desk looked at my passport, took my fingerprints, and without any question called a colleague of hers. The only thing she said was: “we’ve got a Two-Five here”..... All of a sudden I was a “two-five”, and I didn’t even know what that was. I was brought down to two numbers, which probably stood for something suspicious and which needed extra attention.

I was brought up to a special desk where another lady took my passport and started typing all kind of stuff into her computer. I tried to explain why I was here, and at the point that I was talking about the exchange of knowledge and experiences between Detroit and Utrecht, she cut me off and asked if I wanted to open my suitcase.

She went through my stuff (boxer shorts, warm socks, towel, toothpaste, shirts) and saw a carton box – about an A4 size. “What’s in the box?” she asked, and I replied “an exhibition”. There we stood, a couple of seconds, realising what the situation was, and she let me go. It’s great to be back again.