Artists and migrations

The relationships that migrations establish with what we conventionally know as "arts" (photography, painting, cinema, sculpture, literature, etc.) are very varied. Probably the most natural is that in which migrations, as processes, persons, situations or experiences that are actually in reality and form part of it, serve as the basis for artistic representations (which are nourished by the various aspects of what we call "reality", recreating and reproducing them in their various supports and in accordance with specific aesthetic codes). 

Today, however, I am interested in highlighting here another kind of connection between the arts and artists and migrations, that through which the visual artist seeks to influence the migratory reality that feeds artistic representations, driven by a desire to improve the living conditions of people immersed in complex and painful migratory processes. I would like to illustrate this relationship with the examples of two specific artists, whose initiatives and activities I met this summer.

The first of these is the Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, who is currently presenting (until 4 April 2021), at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the exhibition "In Real Life". A section of this exhibition, entitled The Expanded Studio, gives an account of the projects that the author is developing with different teams in his Berlin studio, independently from the production of artworks and exhibitions. These projects are interested in contemporary issues such as the environment (climate change, renewable energies) or migrations. In connection with the latter, the exhibition in Bilbao presents and graphically documents the project Luz verde - Taller artística (Green Light - An artistic workshop). This is a social initiative of an educational nature, specifically a modular lamp workshop that aims to integrate young refugees through artistic work, which is also reinforced by immersion in the language of the host society. This practice was presented at the Venice Biennale in 2017, and continues a model that Eliasson had already developed at the TBA21 in Vienna, the artistic research space created in 2002 by Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza.

Olafur Eliasson defines the green light as an "act of welcome", aimed at both the newly arrived refugees and the residents of the host cities, with the intention of delving into reality, without moving away from it. The aim is to show how artistic activity can contribute, in a modest way, to improving the living conditions of people who suffer from processes of uprooting and displacement, while at the same time emphasising the power of collaborative work. 

Another initiative (of which we have only recently become aware) that exemplifies the social commitment of artists to migration, beyond the function of migration as an inspiring theme in their work, is that of the British artist Bansky, from whom we learned a few days ago that he had chartered a humanitarian ship, the Louise Michel, to carry out actions to rescue migrants in the Mediterranean. The ship, painted with a drawing by Bansky depicting a girl holding a heart-shaped life preserver, takes its name from a 19th century French anarchist, famous for her active militancy and social work in The Paris Commune, the revolutionary movement that governed that city between March and May 1871. 

Bansky's contribution to the project is exclusively economic; the crew of the Louise Michel is led by the activist Pia Klemp, whose story caught the artist's attention and encouraged him to collaborate economically with her. Pia Klemp is a ship captain, and has collaborated with different German NGOs in rescue operations in the Mediterranean, saving the lives of thousands of migrants. In 2017 the ship she was piloting at the time, the Iuventa, was hijacked in the port of Lampedusa, accused by the Italian government of encouraging illegal immigration. In statements to The Guardian reproduced these days in different media, Pia Klemp has pointed out that she does not consider the rescues of migrants as humanitarian actions, but as part of the anti-fascist struggle.

After a first successful rescue operation of 89 migrants on 27 August, the Louise Michel called for help two days later when it was immobilised at maximum capacity, after facing another rescue, this time of 219 people, and was assisted by the Sea-Watch4, a boat linked to Médecins Sans Frontières, which took charge of 150 of the migrants rescued by the first.

The projects and actions of Eliasson and Bansky are, each in their own way, a sample of the different ways in which the relationship between the arts and migration can take shape, and at the same time a reflection of the social commitment of their promoters.

Luis Guerra, Professor of Spanish Language at the European University of Madrid, is one of the main researchers of the INMIGRA3-CM project, financed by the Community of Madrid and the European Social Fund.