(Un)documented Migration feat. Hostile Terrain 94

The (Un)documented Migration is an exhibition initiated by the MA Photography & Society teacher and photographer Andrea Stultiens. The exhibition offers the opportunity to think about the ways in which the contexts and conditions in which migration takes place are available through mediation. Central in the exhibition is the Hostile Terrain 94 installation, a traveling collaborative effort which maps the, otherwise often undocumented, individuals who died while migrating from Mexico to the US in the Arizona Desert. Other Migration Routes and conditions are presented in the work of British photographer Nathaniel White-Steele, and contributions by the MA Photography & Society of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague students.

We were invited by Andrea Stultiens to help in different areas of this collaborative initiative. More specifically, we worked with the students in finding strategies that engage public's participation throughout the process of setting up the Hostile Terrain 94 installation. We have also initiated a new collaboration with the Now You See Me Moria collective who we invited to participate in the exhibition with their Action Kit; a travelling poster campaign aiming to raise awareness about Moria - the largest refugee camp in Europe situated on the island of Lesbos, Greece. In response to the exhibition we created the first episode of our podcast series "Between Art & Activism" where many of the contributors shared their views on the role of photography in documenting migration and its connection to anthropology.


Contributors to the exhibition:

• Hostile Terrain 94 (by Jason de León)
• Nathaniel White-Steele
  
• Now You See Me Moria
• Arianna Cavalensi
  
• Dafni Melidou
  
• Daniel Chatard
  
• Alexey Yurenev
  
• Diego Reindel
  
• Jonathan Tang
  
• Roger Anis
  
• He Bo
  
• Charmaine de Heij
  

This exhibition wouldn't be possible without the help of many MA Photography & Society students. Special thanks to Daniel Zduniuk, Joseph Kennel, Benjamin Morrison, Arianna Cavalensi, Beatrice Cera for their commitment. 

This exhibition took place in Amare (1-15 Nov. 2022) in The Hague, in relation to the Gerbrands Lecture, which was delivered by Jason de Léon, initiator of Hostile Terrain ’94, in the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden. The exhibition was made possible thanks to Fund for Ethnology / Leiden University.

uploaded on November 2022