The Heart is Trespassing
At the @School.of.Trespass
October 2021
Filmmaker: Loy
Sound composer: maria minx
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@sunday_fg
Conception
The Solidarity costumes were originally created in honour of travellers, rough sleepers, squatters, van dwellers, and protesters; all threatened by the Police Crime Court and Sentencing Bill, the spearhead of the "antitrespass" legislation announced in the 2019 tory manifesto.
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Although the pieces were designed to be worn in a pair, they also function as independent outfits. They were conceived as costumes for performative purposes, as two or more can be linked together by the veins. However, they can be worn separately, for instance as a variation of the traditional blackbloc.
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The vibrancy of the veins laid on top of the blackbloc outfit is a reminder of the richness of the values, motivations, and networks of the "scary" activists underneath them.
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The veins are inextricably linked from one body to the next. As with solidarity, an attack on one is an attack on all.
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The veins on the forehead are allegorical of the rage felt in threatened communities, when the grasp of the state is closing in on them.
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Implementation
The costumes were worn at the @School.of.Trespass, during their "Weekend of Resistance". They hosted radical workshops and talks on themes such as anti-trespass, land justice, borders, and feminist self-defence, as well as showcasing art, and of course sharing food and clothes.
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One of the finer summaries of the space and its intentions can be quoted from a RA-T communique published in Freedom Press: "Joy as a form of resistance. Dance, music, painting, photography, film, performance, cabaret, drag. Relentlessly annoying landlords and cops. Sharing clothes, meals, smokes and drinks and bedsheets with each other. Laughing in the face of oppression."
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@sunday_fg
Two performers stood outside the building, holding hands, and reciting the text below, whilst other persons in balaclavas handed out invitations to trespass in the 'School'.
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"Travellers!
Rough sleepers!
Squatters!
Migrants!
Refugees!
Van dwellers!
Protesters!
Lovers!
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You can't just erase us!
You can't just erase us!
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Trespass with us!
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The heart is crossing barriers
The heart is beating
The heart is trespassing"
@sunday_fg