About the part that art plays in a globalising society

Framer Framed

Collage of the collective, made by We Sell Reality

We Sell Reality

We Sell Reality is a social rebellion label that is set up as a collective with an open-source character. We Sell Reality makes products and installations and creates performative interventions in public spaces. The team consists of around 15 social designers. Most members of the collective came here as refugees and are in limbo. The makeup of the team can change throughout various projects, those who would like to join is welcome.

We Sell Reality reflects on the paradox of closed borders for one and open borders for the other. For immigrants without wealth, these borders prove to be almost impossible to pass. Whereas the same borders are easy to pass for someone with a European passport, both physical and for trading purposes. We Sell Reality makes visible the dependency that occurs for some as a consequence of this paradox. The We Sell Reality team develops products and presentations with the aim of providing insight into the lives of undocumented refugees.

 

Projects by We Sell Reality give expression to a failing Europe and its asylum policy, but also to people’s will to live, disrupt, pride and love. We Sell Reality simultaneously makes the reality of vulnerable survivors visible and seductive. Where the market and the survival of the fittest apply, We Sell Reality shows the reality of people in the most vulnerable position.


We Sell Reality contributed to the online presentation Drawing Stories (2020) curated by Josien Pieterse from Framer Framed as part of the online exhibition Corona in the City, organised by the Amsterdam Museum. Since the beginning of 2021, Framer Framed opened its space for We Sell Reality. For half a year the collective has been working to visualize their experience with deals the EU makes to keep refugees outside the continent. The exhibition Powerplay – Deals All Over (2021) is a colourful installation about the systematic exclusion of refugees from Europe, in the form of a toy shop for children.