“Hello, my name is Mauricio Leon, and I’m a person like you, who has desires, dreams, and opinions… I do not accept any State labeling me a ‘foreigner,’ ‘B visa,’ or ‘Extra-European.’” With those words in mind and a black letter B painted on his face, Mauricio Leon decided one day to walk up and down the streets of Geneva, publicly displaying the discriminatory mark printed in his B visa.
Leon aimed to wrongfoot Swiss administrative bureaucracy, whose usual violence is expressed in the hushed ambiance of an office or through an official registered letter. By forcing people who were merely passing by to face the immigration policy in force in Switzerland, Leon’s Action B performance shifted the debate to the public square, embodying an act of resistance before any and all normative designations.