The Grey Area

Far away so close

At a glance

The Grey Area is a land full of wonders waiting to be found just around the corner from your own sofa. Though the first time visitor could experience its landscape as impossible to grasp, it is never ending, ever changing and a fun place to visit.

The Grey Area is the space between zones, the gap crossing hegemonies, the space between what is wrong and what is right. Moving around it leaves enough room for citizens and foreigners to navigate in it, without directly breaking the law and without obeying it either.

Even while sitting on our sofa accompanied by our favourite cat, dog or elephant, it seems as life is full of rules, laws and regulations. Not knowing what those rules mean, do not exempt us from obeying them. Looking more closely you will find out that the Grey Area is full of possibilities to stay where you are and yet, change your position in the world completely.

The never ending changes in rules and regulations can bring the simple citizen into despair. Laws and ethics that are a common ground today can change and become a dead end zone within a glance. This grey landscape is made from never ending little black letters that form themselves into words in an unknown language of the law. It feels as if it can always be used against you, starting from a letter from the tax office or the city hall till the legal books and law courts.

Knowing where the gaps in the law are can bring you far. As an individual you can try to change the system, or step outside of it, but you can also find the grey areas in it and twist them for your own needs. The tactics of translating the rules you receive as a citizen to your own benefit are broad and varies from country to country, institutions within the countries and your translation talent.

Unfortunately, the grey area is mostly a land which a good lawyer can take you to easily, if you can afford it.  But no worries, with a little bit of your own creativity and help from the ‘Lovely Planet of How to Disappear in Europe’ guidebook, you can learn your first steps in the vast ‘grey land’ and find out it can be a joyful destination to visit.