In “Dialecto”, Colombian artist Felipe Romero Beltrán draws on the poetics of social photography, documentary, performance and choreography to question, socially and politically, the dead time that young migrants confront when trapped in the bureaucratic intricacies of the Spanish judicial system.

Presented in full for the first time, between MNAC and Carpintarias de São Lázaro, “Dialecto” follows three young Moroccan migrants over the course of three years as they are exiled in Kafkaesque limbo in Seville, in the south of Spain. When migrant minors enter the country illegally and cannot yet be considered adults, they enter the custody of the State, which submits them to an almost three-year-long process to obtain legal status.

In this state of suspension and liminality, the artist approaches the body as a metaphor: through a language carefully articulated between photography, performance and choreographic collaboration, the weight of dead time is felt on the shoulders of these young people, speaking to their memories, journeys and the humiliating mundanity of waiting as an immigrant. Bringing together video works, installation and photography, “Dialecto” opens new documentary pathways that take a critical look at oppressive bureaucratic practices, not only in Spain, but also in Portugal.