STATELESS

VIEWS OF GLOBAL MIGRATION


This post is also available in: French

While global migration has existed for tens of thousands of years, we are currently facing an unprecedentedly vast movement of people across borders. Presently fueled by intense conflict, political battles, economic inequality, and climate change, global migration is at its highest level since World War II. According to the United
Nations Refugee Agency, 68.5 million people were displaced in 2018, and among them, 25.4 million have been designated as refugees, 10 million have been left stateless, fewer than 105,000 have been resettled, and each day, conflicts and persecutions force 44,400 people to flee their homes. The exhibition Stateless: Views of Global Migration seeks to humanize this stark data through individual stories that help to define this global human crisis. Eight contemporary artists offer distinct lenses for considering the contradictions inherent to the crisis, finding beauty and strength in the face of collective trauma. These powerful works of art bear witness, contemplate memory, and explore human connectivity to place, which becomes particularly poignant when one can no longer safely return.

Although they use widely different artistic approaches, both Bissane Al Charif (Palestinian/Syrian, b. 1977) and Omar Imam (Syrian, b. 1979) give voice to people that have been uprooted from their homes in Syria, much like the artists themselves. The works of both Daniel Castro Garcia (Spanish, b. 1985) and Leila Alaoui(French/Moroccan, 1982–2016) convey the traumatic experiences of sub-Saharan migrants who embark on life-threatening journeys across the Mediterranean Sea, seeking a better life in Europe—all of them depictions that artfully explore the boundaries of storytelling while avoiding clichés of victimization. In collaboration with seven Syrian refugees, the majority of whom recently arrived in Europe on rafts over the Mediterranean Sea, Shimon Attie (American, b. 1957) created the film The Crossing (2017), which unfolds as a series of slow-moving tableaux as seven Syrians act out a metaphorical tale based on their individual experiences of exile and flight. As a political refugee in the early 2000s, Hiwa K (Iraqi, b. 1975) used personal experiences to inform the making of A View From Above (2017). The film Divided (2018) by Tomas van Houtryve (Belgian, b. 1975) considers the walls and fences that can be found along contentious borders, including the Mexico–United States border.

The works in this exhibition reveal untold stories of global migration, offering an alternative visual framework for understanding the complexity of the crisis. Rather than leaning into overly simplified imagery of nameless victims, the artists featured in Stateless attempt to illustrate what it means to leave—and lose—one’s country
of origin, and to depict it as an experience that is utterly specific, and thus highly varied. In excavating these stories, they divulge significant contradictions: acknowledgments of both place and placelessness, revelations of traumatic pasts alongside pathways to hope. These works of art present the global migration crisis from
multiple vantage points. Although individual personal struggles reflect broad systemic issues, migration itself comes to the fore as a wideranging, and always deeply personal experience. Clearly, the global migration crisis—and the individuals most affected by it—cannot ultimately be represented by any singular image.

photographs by Bissane AL CHARIF, Daniel CASTRO GARCIA, Leila ALAOUI, Tomas VAN HOUTRYVE, Shimon ATTIE, Omar IMAM, Hiwa K

From 24/02/2019 to 31/03/2019
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY
600 South Michigan Avenue
IL 60605 CHICAGO
United States

Opening hours : Monday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm, Sunday from 12pm to 5pm
Phone : 312 663 5554
mocp@colum.edu
www.mocp.org