We have all heard the recent news about 2,000 migrants fleeing persecution and conflict and arriving to Italy a few days ago from North Africa. Unfortunately, such news are quite often accompanied by tragic events with people going missing or drowning in dramatic shipwrecks, and of survivors being mistreated in processing or holding centres.
In the light of these recent events, the Special Mention that the installation "Intermundia" got last week at the awarding ceremony of the 14th Venice International Architecture Exhibition (until 23rd November 2014) resonates even more.
Located in the Arsenale, the light and sound installation by Ana Dana Beroš consists in a sealed and claustrophobic coffin-like small room and it is accompanied by a research project consisting in a book featuring images and maps.
In the installation the island of Lampedusa, primary European entry point for migrants, liminal waiting room and limbo-like place of detention for undesired immigrants, is conceived as a metonymy for confinement.
Graffitied walls, simple beds covered in plastic sheets and desolate views of the identification and expulsion centre in Lampedusa prompt visitors to forget about the criminalisation of irregular immigration and see migrants not as illegal entities, but as workers moving from one country to the other while taking positive action rather than just feeling empathy towards them.
The Biennale jury acknowledged "Intermundia" with the following motivation: "Echoing the ongoing tragedy of Lampedusa, the project evokes, with new documentation and through an immersive experience, the reality of migration and border-crossing from the South to the North as a defining element of today's European societies."
Image credits for this post:
Photos By Francesco Galli
Courtesy la Biennale di Venezia
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