About Smuggling

 

Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods across an international border, in violation of applicable international tradelaws.

This underground movement could be simply to evade legal control,using different unauthorized routes, hiding the goods or faking statements andusing false documents. The motivations for the smuggling are such asdefraud and tax evasion, the immesurable bussines of illegal trade, bringingbanned items within the boundaries or get some goods that otherwise would becomplicate to obtain or get them for a better price.

 

The smuggling as activity can be described as an anti-instituionalhuman behaviour, opposed to state economy, whether for politicial, economic orsocial reasons, either for survival reasons. Smuggling is a substantial part of the cities'economy and still a big part of global exchanges. Also in colonized places itplays an important role as reaction to the heavy taxes and colonial regulationsover the goods. Whereas in the past the smuggle ocurred more in ports by shipsor on land across ground borders, nowadays many smugglers fly on regularlyscheduled airlines, as “unauthorized route” not declaring in the airport thegoods they carry with. Many examples of food smuggling can be found throughout the recent history ofhumanity, such as on the border between Spain and Portugal in the post-warperiod during the military uprising of General Franco. At that time, many Spaniards crossed the border into Portugal in search of food.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smuggling is not always linked to a context of scarcity, need or war. They canalso be influenced by micro-economic issues, such as household economics, forexample when you find some cheaper products in countries close to yours. A complex example of this can be found in northern Europe, in the Scandinavian countries, where smuggling practices are still rampant. Like when the Finnish crossed the border into Russia to buy the cheapest food there, the Swedescrossed the border to buy in Denmark or Finland or like when the Norwegians go to buy in Sweden because it is almost half as cheap.

The same happens when many Colombians go to refuel their gasoline vehicles withinthe Venezuelan borders or with the significant underground economy of Cuba.

What happens when these food-smuggling activities break into the context of Art andbecome a symbolic form? 

What are the consequences of artists introducing 170 undeclared sausages intothe borders of another country?
Is this still smuggling? Is this market speculation? Is it still smuggling whenthe surplus is trafficked?
What is the relationship, in the form of institutional or post-colonial criticism, between bringing sausages (as a national symbol) from Norway (one of the richest nations in the world and an exporter of high-standard tourists) to the Canary Islands (one of the poorest regions of Spain and a recipient of millions of tourists annually)?

 

The idea of smuggling, as well as the Happening carried out by Bobrikova & deCarmen in Tenerife, leave many questions open, which I hope in the future will bear fruit in many other works. In this way, his work on international food movements questions several fundamental ideas for the construction of the ideaof the International Trade, Global Ecomomy, the construcction of Nation-Statesand Identity, as well as the bases for any international negotiation: for example, the limits between what is within and what is without, inclusion and exclusion, the idea of globalization, fundamental human rights such as food and access to goods, a more equitable distribution and a fairer economy, a citizens'initiative, a subsistence economy...

Smuggling is a human activity that disrupts into the economy of states and the normalityof events, but isn't the artist often a disruptive agent who breaks socialconventions and the normality of events?