2 ("Medical Borders: Visibility and Shadow Knowledge" version)

2 (“Medical Borders: Visibility and Shadow Knowledge” version) takes as its starting point a series of rare records and medical files (1946–92) concerning cases marked “2”, according to the number written in the passport of people not authorized to enter and seek employment in Switzerland, who were deported after undergoing health inspections at the border. The film revisits a historic score by René Laennec, the inventor of auscultation médiate and the stethoscope, who transposed into musical notation a “song” heard in the bodies of tuberculosis patients. Evoking the sonic presence of the diseased body, the reinterpretation of this melody mobilizes the potential of listening to recount fragments of histories related to a class of “unwanted” people whom the authorities have rendered disposable, using measures initially taken to protect against contagious diseases as a policy instrument aimed at sorting migrants on the basis of their capacity to work. The injustices perpetuated by the failures of the sanitary apparatus become audible, as well as unexpected moments of insubordination and resistance.

The program General Relativity, Take Two is curated by Greg de Cuir Jr.

For more information, contact program@e-flux.com.