Unable to recognize
fingerprint,

100x130cm, sanded European
map by hand

The EU asylum process is governed by the Dublin Regulation, which requires people to apply for
protection in the first country they enter. Most of the refugees don’t want to examine their asylum
applications in those first countries such as Greece, Italy, Spain, etc. because of the countries’ refugee
policies, camp conditions and economical situations. For this reason, refugees trying to move and seek
asylum in second or third countries rather than first countries.
Since 2003, the European Union is using EURODAC system (European Dactyloscopy) to control irregular
border-crossers between European Union countries and identifying asylum seekers via their fingerprints.
With Eurodac, refugees cannot seek asylum in any country other than the country from which they
entered Europe and were first gave fingerprints. Many of them stuck in refugee camps like a prison with
terrible conditions.
Refugees started to erase their fingerprints with sandpaper, acid, or using a knife, razor and mutilate the
fingerprints so as not to be identified with the Eurodac system. In the work, European map sanded by an
artist, only using hands. As a result, European countries and the borders erased and became undefinable,
and same time artist whose fingerprints erased has became unidentifiable, like refugees who erase their
identity to survive.

The work was produced as part of the project Conditions of Peace