Wednesday August 3rd - Danny Bernardy

Two hours into a heated conversation about borders and immigration Ianthe popped up (yes, after I prodded her) and said, “Okay, Let’s Go to Albania!” and though we began with a rehearsal that was expected to end in the same room in which it started—the six of us found ourselves caravanning towards the Greek border town of Kakavia.

Our brave and fearless leader Ianthe has been cultivating our minds the past few days with talk of immigration. And an original piece by One Year Lease. And putting the two together.

So with little more than an idea and a chat our group of artists arrived at the sweaty border crossing met with rubber necks and glued eyes.

I was confronted with my feelings of discomfort as we eagerly sought a parking spot; though we had no intention of actually crossing the border (it’s a steep 40 Euros to cross as a US Citizen) I had no identification on me. And let’s face it—it’s a border crossing at a contentious place.

Our goal was simply to observe and see what we could find. (And I am pretty certain we were the only people there to do that.)

Babis popped out of the car and immediately started engaging person and place with his camera.

I wanted to find a place for us to park ourselves.

I saw (you couldn’t miss it) a “Food Café” that was brightly colored and stuck out like neon on a nun’s habit—it was our ticket, our island—our observatory. Albeit a bit safe.

But from there this oddly cheerful Food/Café put us on the apex of a triangle. On either side of the base of this triangle were two sides: a very empty lane that was coming out of Albania and into Greece and a very full lane that was exiting Greece and entering Albania. Not what I expected.

As we began to absorb the activity at the border I started to keep a list of our impressions. Here are a few:
Faded, peeling and pale yellow paint
Sun Drenched
Girl on Cell Phone w/ Headphones and a shirt reading, “what? You now?”
Mercedez Benz
Barefoot children
“Soviet” Art—
Weeds and Wildflower
Litter
Child w/ Souvlaki Stick
Bus shelter w/ broken window pains and taxi numbers scrawled in the shelter walls
Disco version of Pink Floyd playing
Stoves on rooves of cars
People waiting
Smiles
Men
Taxi drivers pacing in tandem
Pigs crossing
Police seated outside a food-truck style cantina
Man asking for money at a car, and a conversation and a photo with that man. Babis, after taking a photo of this young man then asked Babis to please, “Find Mister Panayiannis in Athens and show him these photos of me. Please.” His faith and hope in this possibility—his smile in the midst of his apparent desperation were heartbreaking.

I’m really glad we went.