NEW YORK.- Wooloo Productions, a Berlin-based art collective working from the outset in the online artist community www.wooloo.org, presents the world premier of “A Documentation of AsylumNYC”. The video documentary is based on footage from the groups 2006 project AsylumNYC - in which Wooloo Productions detained 10 non-U.S. artists in the art institution White Box and had them compete for a 3-year visa.

After five days detention, artist Dusanka Komnenic from Serbia and Montenegro was awarded the free legal services to obtain a 3-year 0-1 artists visa for the U.S. One year later - in August 2007 - Dusanka Komnenic was accepted for the visa.

At 7 PM on November 6th, 2007, A Documentation of AsylumNYC will be screened at the very place the project took place: White Box in Chelsea - 525 West 26th Street, New York, NY 10001. The screening is free and will be followed by a talk with Wooloo Productions and other of the participating artists.

AsylumNYC was as site-specific investigation into regimes of exclusion. The project performed the notion of acceptance needed by both the traditional refugee and the creative worker to be a successful immigrant. Similar in kind to the proof needed by an asylum seeker to be accepted as a “real” refugee by the nation state, the creative worker has to prove her/his worth to the creative community before gaining status as a “real” artist. And just as any other immigrant, the asylum artist will ultimately be dependent on the goodwill of strangers to thrive in their new environment.

To qualify for a U.S. visa, an artist or any other creative professional have to demonstrate extraordinary ability in the arts as evidenced by awards, critical reviews, or professional affiliations. They must also be able to afford the legal expenses associated with this extensive procedure. Functioning within these processes, AsylumNYC confronted its otherwise privileged participants with their own precarious freedom of movement.

Wooloo Productions is a nomadic production company working from the outset in the online artist community www.wooloo.org. Currently based in Berlin, Wooloo Productions creates collaborative projects and situations in which the wooloo.org community participates. Every Wooloo production begins by researching a selected power structure. The project then attempt to replicate the mechanisms of the given structure, insert itself into its matrix, and ultimately offer the possibility for an alternative mode of existence. Wooloo Productions have applied their participatory projects and performances in such places as: Artists Space, New York City; 25th VIBER Festival for Film, Video and New Media, Basel Kunsthalle; and Nikolaj Contemporary Art Center, Copenhagen. For more information, see www.wooloo.org.