i think, therefore i disappear

Neel Bhattacharjee
Oct 7, 2024
2 min read

Dear Anybody,

I write to you from the existential crossroads where bureaucracy meets philosophy. Inspired by René Descartes' "I think, therefore I am," my project explores the absurdity of existence through the visa application process: "I think, therefore I disappear."

In response to my visa denial, I created an imaginary Salzburg set in Darjeeling, India, juxtaposing my denied journey with an artistic reimagining of a colonial setting. Accompanied with a photographic narrative based on the colonial words of a visa form, each image and text answering questions with wit and insight. The embassy's suspicion that I might vanish into a member state before my visa expires casts me as a security threat, undermining my identity and highlighting the plight of the South Asian diaspora.

Their doubts about my socio-economic roots question my very existence in society. In this bureaucratic labyrinth, my identity is reduced to numbers: passport numbers, identity numbers, dates of issue and expiry. My existential truth, "I think, therefore I am," is replaced by "I think, therefore I must prove." My nationality, INDIAN, is a post-colonial badge scrutinized by former colonizers.

Therefore the idea was to go beyond the questions related to the dehumanizing maze of migration and the act of figurative disappearance using Descartes philosophical spirit, where I affirm my existence through thought, even as the system seeks to make me disappear. I think, therefore I am denied; I think, therefore I am doubted; I think, therefore I disappear.

Sincerely,

Nobody

22 july 2024

I was fortunate to receive the tution fees waiver from the Society of Friends from the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts to attend the course with Sarker Protick and develop the project to showcase the work at the Open Studios(#1).

Excerpts from the workshop, constructed world, breaking down a photo series.