Forensic Architecture founder Eyal Weizman has been prevented from entering the United States ahead of the opening of his studio's Miami exhibition that explores the "arbitrary logic of the border".
Weizman, who was made an MBE in the Queen's New Year Honours list earlier this year, sent a statement to Dezeen revealing that he was not able to attend the opening of the exhibition at Museum of Art and Design in Miami yesterday. The statement was read out at the event on his behalf by his wife Ines Weizman.
According to the statement, the British-Israeli architect was told at an interview at the US Embassy in London that his Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) visa waiver, which offers entry to the US for periods of up to 90 days for two years, had been retracted due to an alert triggered by an algorithm. "The officer informed me that my authorisation to travel had been revoked because the 'algorithm' had identified a security threat," Weizman said.
"[The officer] said he did not know what had triggered the algorithm but suggested that it could be something I was involved in, people I am or was in contact with, places to which I had travelled (had I recently been in Syria, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, or Somalia or met their nationals"), hotels at which I stayed, or a certain pattern of relations among these things."
Incident highlights issues at borders
Wiezman is the founder of Forensic Architecture, a research group based at Goldsmit...