Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac London will remain open for the 24h live performance Swiss Passport Office by American artist Tom Sachs. Visitors can be issued with a Tom Sachs Studio Swiss passport from Friday 5 October, 6pm - Saturday 6 October, 6pm. Those wishing to purchase a passport will be photographed and have their name hand-typed onto a serial-numbered passport issue, stamped with a Studio endorsement and entered into the permanent database. Passports cost €20 (no British pounds will be accepted), pre-booking is strongly advised.Swiss Passport Office encompasses contemporary concerns relating to Brexit, Syria and Trump’s immigration policies and their challenge to the notion of global citizenship. “To effect change, we must first imagine the world not the way it is, but the way we want it to be,” Sachs says.
For Sachs, Switzerland is a nation of boundaries: geographically it sits in an imposing mountainous landscape; economically it acts as a shelter for extreme wealth; and politically it holds a status as an EU non-member state and was a safe haven during times of war or persecution. Swiss citizenship is “the ultimate status nationality, representing wealth, neutrality and freedom”; a status the artist wishes to make available to all.
Following this 24-hour period, the Swiss Passport Office installation will remain on view at the gallery until 10th November, but closed for the issuing of passports.