Joining the heart of Hyde Park with the pulse of Chicago’s larger arts community, CONNECT is a three-day contemporary art festival that combines visual art, live performances, designed objects, film, music, fashion, and literary culture. The festival will take place in 3 distinct gallery spaces, multiple storefronts, businesses and restaurants in Downtown Hyde Park.

Wulia will occupy one of the storefronts at 1538 E. 53rd St. with her Make Your Own Passport project, which after several international presentations, will make its Chicago debut. The project is an installation and workshop-performance held in public spaces, in which patrons are invited to create, using bookbinding techniques, their own personal passport while at the same time becoming part of a conversation about nationhood and statelessness.

Tintin Wulia’s “Make Your Own Passport” (2014) is an installation and workshop-performance held in 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. It has been repeatedly performed in markets, fairs and community centres in Detroit (USA), Windsor (Canada), Singapore, Jogja (Indonesia), and most recently Quito (Ecuador) as part of the UN Conference Habitat III.

The workshop-performance attracts participants with a colourful installation displaying templates of passports from 142 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.

Several participants 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 to hear a story about a stateless person.

Participants are requested to give feedback and sign a consent form. The workshop-performance may be documented.