The artists whose works appear in this exhibition demonstrate the creative and artistic resilience and agency of migrant imaginations through different engagements with the material and lived conditions of migration.
In the midst of the political crisis of migration and the colonial legacies that overshadow this mass-movement towards Europe, these and other artists have refused to be silenced by the devastating conditions of containment. Instead, they have turned to art-making and transnational community building.
During their time in Lesvos, these artists have experienced not only state-sanctioned captivity and hostility but also local and inter-community solidarity and hospitality. They have lived in camps that range from massive registration and detention centers such as Moria to migrant-initiated camps, and smaller, independently run communities fostered by local NGOs. Children seeking creative outlets, teens pursuing platforms for self-expression, and adults concerned with remaking and redefining themselves and their worlds come together in these works to demonstrate the fortitude of their ingenuity and inventiveness as people at the forefront of a mass movement: artistically, socially, and geopolitically.
Shukran Sherzad
Shukran Sherzad is a singer, painter, and art teacher from Afghanistan who currently lives and works in the Moria Camp, on Lesvos. He was persecuted in his own country because of his music and art and had to emigrate. In Moria, he connected with family and friends from Afghanistan who had set up the Wave of Hope for the Future, a small, grassroots organization active in educating children and adults.
When asked to be in charge of their art training, he built and set up a small studio where he paints and teaches drawing and painting. He and his wife Leda Sherzad also design t-shirts, which are then hand-painted by teenagers and are sent to people who donate to the initiative. Three of his paintings are exhibited here, together with four t-shirts.
Click to Enlarge
Untitled, 2019
A painting of a woman and a child struggling to stay afloat during the sea crossing, presumably following a boat capsizing. The phrase painted at the bottom comes from a poem by the Somali-British writer and poet, Warsan Shire, entitled, “Home”. The poem, and this phrase in particular, have become widely known in recent years.
Photographic reproduction of an original, acrylic painting on canvas
Courtesy of Shukran Sherzad, The Wave of Hope
© Shukran Sherzad, 2019
Untitled, 2019
A perhaps unintended ironic comment on the representation of border crossing, this work depicts another painting by the artist showing Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old Kurdish-Syrian boy found dead on a Turkish beach in 2015. That sad image has since been reproduced in countless works; but here the painting of Kurdi is seen photographed by a western photographer, a friend of the artist. The word REFUGEE added, stencil-like at the bottom, declares an identity that migrants are asked to verify and prove constantly. It also evokes the themes of painting, the risk of death, and border-scape as a global stage.
Acrylic paint on canvas
Courtesy of Shukran Sherzad, The Wave of Hope
© Shukran Sherzad, 2019
Untitled, 2020
This painting was done after a few particularly strong stormy nights in Moria, a frightening experience for anybody who lives in makeshift huts and tents made of flimsy materials, often held to the ground by hanging heavy stones from their roof. Olive trees, which dominate the hills around Moria, are also prominently depicted, including the one which gave its name to the first overflow sector (“The Olive Grove”).
Acrylic and oil paint on canvas
Courtesy of Shukran Sherzad, The Wave of Hope
© Shukran Sherzad, 2020
Yohannes Zerazion
Yohannes Zerazion is an artist from Eritrea now based in Switzerland. Like all migrants who make the voyage to Lesvos on their journey to Europe, upon arrival he was transferred to the Moria Camp for registration and detention. He later moved to the Pikpa Camp, run by the Lesvos Solidarity group. Here, Zerazion connected with the Mosaik Support Center for Refugees and Locals where he created many of his artworks.
Zerazion’s practice involves repurposing found objects and transforming discarded remnants from migration to express his autonomy as an artist and migrant. Gathering discarded objects from the shores of Lesvos and the “Lifevest Cemetery” he remakes them into miniature works of art.
In a transformative process of collection, deconstruction, and reformation through applied paper-mâché and paint, Zerazion instills new meaning into fragments of discarded life vests and water bottles shed by migrants after border crossing. These remnants are then marked by the gestures of the artist who sees different stories in the objects he reclaims, asserting the agency, imagination, and courage of the people who once used them.
Untitled
This plastic water bottle shown alongside the decorative upcycled plastic bottle pencil holder made by Yohannes Zerazion represents one of the most ubiquitous types of material culture found on beaches and in migrant camps around the Mediterranean. This specific water bottle was made in Turkey and conceivably travelled with migrants to Lesvos where it was collected. Both objects challenge conventional notions of plastic waste, drawing attention to the simultaneously disposable yet permanent properties of this material culture in transit.
Yohannes Zerazion, 2017
Mosaik Support Center for Refugees and Locals, Mytilini
Pencil holder made of upcycled plastic water bottle, papier-mache, acrylic paint
Purchased from the artist
Courtesy of Yannis Hamilakis
Untitled
Yohannes Zerazion, 2017
Mosaik Support Center for Refugees and Locals, Mytilini
Decorative plate made of plaster and acrylic paint
Purchased from the artist
Courtesy of Yannis Hamilakis
Untitled Works
Yohannes Zerazion, 2017
Mosaik Support Center for Refugees and Locals, Mytilini
Recycled life vest styrofoam, papier-mache
Gifted to Yannis Hamilakis or purchased from the artist
Courtesy of Yannis Hamilakis
Workshops on Upcycling and Solidarity
All courtesy of Yannis Hamilakis – Click to Enlarge
These Safe Passage bags, produced by Lesvos Solidarity, are made of upcycled life vest materials collected from the “Lifevest Cemetery” and from the beaches. They were purchased by Yannis Hamilakis in Lesvos in 2017. The organization employs a number of migrants who labor to transform such materials into handbags, totes, wallets, and messenger bags. The project offers migrants opportunities to transform the material debris of border crossings, often seen as “trash”, into useful practical objects and tangible messages of solidarity, while economically supporting migrant life at the same time.
Art Bridges & Art Made by Migrant Children
Untitled, 2016
This work was created in June 2016 at the Kara Tepe migrant camp, near Mytilini on Lesvos, by children coming from several Middle Eastern and African countries. It was done on the occasion of then-Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon’s visit to the camp, as part of the activities of the Art Bridges organization. It depicts the border crossing between Turkey and Greece via Lesvos, and arrival on the island. Oral accounts testify that migrants may have to wait for days or weeks hidden in forested areas before they are placed onto overcrowded, inflatable boats for the crossing. We can also spot depictions of human figures overboard, on what appear to be rough seas.
Cotton, acrylic colors
Courtesy of Angela Maria Arbelaez, Art Bridges-Γέφυρες Τέχνης, Lesvos
Painted pizza box
A pizza box painted over by children, boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 9, as part of art projects and activities conducted by the Art Bridges charity, at Kara Tepe Camp on Lesvos, in 2016. The children came from the Yazidi ethnic-religious group, living in Iraq and Syria.
Cardboard paper, watercolors
Kara Tepe Camp, Lesvos
Courtesy of Angela Maria Arbelaez, Art Bridges-Γέφυρες Τέχνης, Lesvos
Miniature dish
This artwork was made in 2016 at Lesvos’ Kara Tepe Camp by two Syrian-Kurdish sisters, aged between 6 and 10. They were asked to recall and depict the food they missed most from their homeland. They opted for yabrak or dolma, a dish common in the Middle East and southeastern Europe, made by stuffing vine leaves or vegetables with rice, herbs and spices. Dolma is an elaborate dish that takes time and skill to prepare. Food memory and food nostalgia bridge remote spaces and times to conjure up lost homelands. The children who made this artwork now live in Germany with their family.
Modeling clay, plant leaves, watercolors
Kara Tepe Camp, 2016
Courtesy of Angela Maria Arbelaez, Art Bridges-Γέφυρες Τέχνης, Lesvos
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