"The passport is the noblest part of a person." (B. Brecht)

"ID, please"

A `re´action from Hüseyin Isik

All ID checkers in the world share one thing: they are armed.

The fatigue of the entire day is spread throughout my body; and for days, I have been experiencing a headache. I am on the U4 subway; the door closes in Schönbrunn. It’s the point where I always get up; I hang my bag over my shoulder, take the shopping bag in my hand; and the vibrations of the subway intensify the pain in my head. I lean against the wall next to the door, along with my jacket, bag, and sack. The subway stops at Hietzing, and with my flat hand, I knock against the door handle. Later, I take my place among the crowd on the escalator. With a routine jump, I separate from the escalator onto the stationary ground. Suddenly, the crowd moves away from me; instead, a police crowd steps in. One of them lowers his eyes into mine – he keeps coming closer. With his outstretched arms, he tries to prevent me from being blown away, from being pushed against the wall. Who is this obstacle that blocks my daily route? I look against this obstacle, I feel something, the pain in my head subsides, my eyes drift away, and I walk back...

My First ID Check

After the coup of March 12, 1971 – I am a ten-year-old child – a curfew is imposed across Turkey, and police and military go door to door – identity and ID checks.
This situation repeats itself until the mid-1970s.
Carrying a face on your body is not enough: you must carry an ID.
By the late 1970s, it was impossible to move from one alley to the next in Istanbul without ID checks. You can still see the traces of IDs on our buttocks from that time.

September 12, 1980 – another military coup – even more controls. The ID becomes part of the human body. If you leave your ID at home, you are a guest in police custody for several days.
I realize: not only the photo but also the place of birth becomes important during the check.

In the mid-1980s – my first trip abroad: ID check turns into passport control. That means a waiting room at customs, and the travelers behind me become impatient, a new door must be opened for them...

His eyes still meet mine, and the police officer presses: "ID, please..."
My mother, my father, my name, birthday, birthplace, color, gender, nationality, and religion—I did not choose any of these; nor did I choose the laws that govern me; I was thrown into this world.

Every child carries a heart for their hero inside.
As a child, I often visited Luna Park; the most interesting for me were the faceless stencil figures: Zorro, Peko’s Bill, Superman, Sitting Bull – all our heroes were here.
Here, we were allowed to choose our identity – the photo became our chosen ID.

The exhibition "ID, please" also gives you the chance to choose between identities from different nations.

Large-format reproductions of IDs are exhibited.
The difference from the original: the face on the passport photo is cut out.
This allows visitors to choose their preferred identity and record it on a Polaroid photo.
Thus, visitors are given the opportunity to make a choice, a chance for personal identification with a new identity.
Specifically, in the re'Aktion project, the choice was between: an Iraqi, Japanese, Turkish, and Dutch passport, an Austrian foreigner’s ID, an identity card from the occupation period, and a victim’s ID from the post-war period.