X et Y c/ France... Plaidoirie pour une jurisprudence

Law of copyright and immigration laws

Two lawyers speak in defence of ‘X’, an immigrant with no papers who is to be deported. In a plea to the European Court of Human Rights they use the law of copyright to nullify the immigration laws: they present X as the author of ‘an immaterial work of art in progress’, which he is creating in collaboration with ‘Y’, a European artist ‘with papers’. According to them, X can in this capacity remain in the country legally. The lawyers on stage are also lawyers in real life: Sylvia Preuss-Laussinotte specialises in immigration law and Sébastien Canevet in the law on intellectual property. The audience takes up the position of the judges: it is up to you to pronounce the imaginary judgement and perhaps set a precedent for future legal cases.

• The French artists Patrick Bernier and Olive Martin often work on the themes of migration and identity, using photos, installations, films, performances and text. They created X et Y c/ France... Plaidoirie pour une jurisprudence at the Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, an arts centre in a Paris suburb where a lot of blue-collar workers and immigrants live. In this production they expose the cynical contrast between the rapid expansion of copyright and intellectual property law and the increasingly limited rights of immigrants.