Asiel is a layered, visual-essayistic book not about asylum seekers, but about the Netherlands. For a year, Tina Farifteh investigated the Dutch asylum system as part of a commission for the Rijksmuseum. Based on four pillars of Dutch identity: Culture, Religion, Rule of Law, and Economy, Farifteh connects the past and present with images from the Rijksmuseum, news, and social media. Three storylines intertwine: the story of B., newly arrived in the Netherlands; Farifteh’s personal journey through key locations in the asylum process; and an investigation into how the asylum seeker is depicted historically and today.

Through these interwoven perspectives, an image emerges of the tension between who we think we are and how we act. The book Asiel reveals how our norms, values, and institutions have developed and how a system once built on empathy could become harsh and indifferent. By showing the viewer not only what happens but also what it says about us, Asiel opens up a new, critical understanding of how the Netherlands treats people seeking protection. The work breaks through distance and abstraction and invites reflection on our history, our identity, and our responsibility in the present.

As B. navigates the Dutch asylum system, the book repeatedly shifts back in time, revealing how deeply the idea of ​​asylum is embedded in our culture. Centuries-old images, such as Mary and Jesus fleeing to Egypt, receiving hospitality along the way, testify to a world in which sheltering vulnerable people was seen as a self-evident moral imperative. The contrast with our current interactions with people seeking protection by boat is stark and confronting. The historical images, in which compassion takes on sacral proportions, resonate harshly with the reality of closed borders, pushbacks, and procedures that prioritize distrust rather than care. The book also reveals how our views on freedom of movement are historically rooted in a time when Europeans traveled the world without hindrance. The
paintings and prints of Dutch and European ships crossing oceans, waging war, plundering, and claiming land provide a compelling counterpoint to the contemporary reality, where enormous efforts are being made to restrict the movement of other people. While migration figures today are not exceptional, it is primarily the direction that has changed, and with it our attitudes.

This interweaving of past and present thus creates a direct link to the colonial and slavery past, and to the continent from which B. comes. The images show how extraction, hierarchy, and inequality are structurally embedded in our interactions with other worlds. They make it tangible that the way we view migration today is not a separate phenomenon, but stems from long lines of power and its representation. The way the Netherlands and Europe have viewed Africa for decades, as a continent of crisis, dependency, pity, or threat, is also cast in a new light. Not through explicit explanation, but through what becomes visible when B.’s observations are placed alongside these historical representations.