INTRODUCTION

This boat named The Carrier of Migrants Souls will be exhibiting a migrant art exhibition. It will be touring around Italy from the 14-05-21 to the 10-09-21. You will find the boat docked at each of Italy's main ports, at each location for a week from 09:00 to 21:00 everyday including festivals. The full details for dates and locations are displayed below. All art included in this exhibition has been kindly loaned by the artists themselves, and this project has been fully funded with donations by Matteo Salvini, who is desperate to prove to the nation his hospitality towards migrants. Tickets will be provided at the entrance free of charge.

This exhibition’s purpose is to bring to light the struggles that thousands of migrants face in their journeys across the Mediterranean Sea in order to reach Italian soil; a land that they are drawn to due to the prospects of a better quality of life. The devastating reality however is that every year thousands of people lose their lives on this deadly route – one death is one death too many, but 20,400 deaths have been recorded since 2016. That is 20,400 souls that are lost to the sea, so this boat will carry their souls, and through our exhibits we will give them a voice to speak. This injustice can no longer be ignored, and we can no longer turn our heads away.

• Lampedusa 14-05-21 to 21-05-21
• Palermo 22-05-21 to 29-05-21
• Cagliari 30-05-21 to 06-06-21
• Genoa 07-06-21 to 14-06-21
• La Spezia 15-06-21 to 22-06-21
• Livorno 23-06-21 to 30-06-21,
• Civitavecchia 01-07-21 to 08-07-21
• Napoli 09-07-21 to 16-07-21
• Gioia Tauro 17-07-21 to 24-07-21
• Taranto 25-07-21 to 01-08-21
• Bari 02-08-21 to 09-06-21
• Ancona 10-08-21 to 17-08-21
• Ravenna 18-08-21 to 25-08-21
• Venezia 26-08-21 to 02-09-21
• Trieste 03-09-21 to 10-09-21

EXHIBIT 1- 'BARCA NOSTRA' by CHRISTOPH BÜCHEL 2019:

This 90ft fishing boat sank on the night of 18 April 2015 between Libya and Lampedusa, after it collided with a vessel that had responded to its distress call.

It remains one of the migrant crisis' most shocking tragedies, in which between 700 and 1,100 people perished with only 28 survivors. The people on board were mostly trapped in the hold as the boat capsized.

The project is the work Swiss-Icelandic artist and was first exhibited at Venice Biennale in 2019. Maria Chiara di Trapani, the curator, said: “We are living in a tragic moment without memory. We all look at the news, and it seems so far away: someone is dead at sea and we change the channel.”

Many responses to the project have been negative. Adrian Searle of the Guardian called it a vulgar gesture: "I found Büchel's appropriation of the boat in which so many migrants lost their lives a vile and mawkish spectacle...The best one can say of Büchel's intervention is that it brings us face to face with death. Biennale visitors pause to take selfies in front of it."

But di Trapani feels the physical presence of the boat could help change reaction. She hopes visitors will “feel respect for it and look at it in silence – just keep two minutes of silence to listen and reflect”.

This exhibit can be found on the upper deck of the Carrier of Migrant Souls.

EXHIBIT 3- 'PORTA D'EUROPA' by MIMMO PALADINO 2008:

This exhibit is the 'Porta D'Europa', which was created by the Italian artist Mimmo Paladino in 2008, as part of a project led by the NGO Amani. The 'Porta D'Europa' was originally on the island of Lampedusa prior to this exhibition.

The construction serves as an open gateway to cross into Italy. It symbolizes a warm welcome to the migrants even if many other European countries have closed their own doors to them. However, the open gateway also represents a ‘Door of No Return’ which was used to describe when Africans were stripped, branded and forced onto slave ships and went through the doors of slave forts. The gateway was dedicated to the migrants who have attempted the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean sea to Lampedusa in Southern Italy.

The gateway is approximately 16.5 feet tall and is made using refractory ceramics. The terracotta used is opaque, but the glazed parts of the monument reflect the light. Paladino chose to use only terracotta instead of a metal resistant to the sea's erosional powers, as terracotta is a material well known to African migrants who, in their lands of origin, are used to mixing earth and water to make bricks with which they build their houses.

At the top of the gateway there are many jumbled numbers. '98357345' which refer to the unknown figure of migrant deaths. Also, there are many other terracotta elements protruding from the gateway including hands, shoes and broken bowls.

EXHIBIT 7- 'DROWNING HANDS' by UNNAMED ARTIST S 2018:

The 'Drowning hands' is a guerrilla artwork protesting Italy's hard line attitude towards migrants. The art installation was created in Pescara, in association with local charities and NGOs working to integrate migrants.

The artwork is a protest against Italy's interior minister Matteo Salvini's anti-immigration policies, including that of his refusal to allow ships transporting rescued migrants to dock in Italy.

The art installation depicts a crowd of hands of various nationalities reaching desperately up to the sky, reflecting those drowning migrants and refugees crossing the Mediterranean Sea in their attempts to reach safety. According to the UNHCR, it was estimated that in 2018, 2,275 people lost their lives or went missing during their attempts to reach Europe's southern shores.

One of the networks behind the installation named Rete Oltre il Ponte told CNN that the artwork was a reminder to Salvini that "that the lives of the people are close to our hearts and we want nobody to die at sea anymore".

The installation has previously been placed without legal permission in Pescara's main square in front of the town hall awaiting Salvini's visit.

EXHIBIT 9- 'PRESPE A BOLOGNA' by UNNAMED ARTIST 2017:

This nativity scene was originally on show in the Piazza Zapelloni in a town called Castenaso near to Bologna. The idea was conceived by the town's left-wing Mayor Stefano Sermenghi, who wanted the installation to represent the dangers faced by those migrants who have attempted to cross the Mediterranean in small boats. Sermenghi also was trying to promote tolerance of migrants who flee war and devastation in their own countries.

This reimagination of the birth of Christ replaces Jesus' manger with a dinghy boat. Jesus is held by his mother Mary, and Joseph is watching over them. Also present are a shepherd and a cow.

The artwork has been carved out of wood and the rubber dinghy rests upon a blue sheet of fabric representing the Mediterranean sea.

The art installation was met with fury from locals who said that the mayor was responsible for "killing tradition". Even the local Bishop Monsignor Ernesto Vecchi was outraged, as he exclaimed that the sacred crib should not be represented as a rubber dinghy.

Sermenghi was not fazed by the criticism and announced that "many people in Italy open their mouths, but then nobody does anything to provide a positive welcome to those who arrive."

EXHIBIT 11: 'THE LAMPEDUSA CROSS' by FRANCESCO TUCCIO 2015:

This cross is made from pieces of a boat that was wrecked on 11 October, 2013 off the coast of Lampedusa. 311 Eritrean and Somali refugees were drowned en route from Libya to Europe.

After meeting some of the survivors, Francesco Tuccio (the island's carpenter), was moved by their plight but felt frustrated that he could not make a difference to their situation. The best he could do was to use his skills to fashion each of them a cross from the wreckage of the boat as a reflection on their salvation from the sea and hope for the future.

Prior to this exhibition this exhibit has been displayed in the British Museum since 2015.

EXHIBIT 13 - 'LAMPEDUSA' by VIK MUNIZ 2015:

This exhibit was created by the Brazilian visual artist Vik Muniz and is entitled 'Lampedusa'. Muniz conceived the idea as a result of Italian authorities discontinuing their 'Mare Nostrum' programme which was a large search and rescue operation which saved 130,000 lives of those attempting to cross the Mediterranean sea. Muniz wanted to make a statement marking the ongoing European migrant crisis disaster.

The exhibit is a 45-foot wooden boat constructed in the style of a paper boat and was constructed in commemoration of the 360 immigrants who drowned attempting to cross the Mediterranean sea from Libya to Italy. Muniz's 'Lampedusa' is completely covered with a giant reproduction of the Italian newspaper that announced the tragedy, related to their deaths off the coast of Lampedusa, which is the Italian island near to the coast of North Africa where many seek to land.

The imagery a paper boat creates is very naïve and optimistic and expresses the hopes and dreams of children, which is a stark comparison to the crushed dreams of those refugees crossing the Mediterranean. The lucky ones who do reach the shores of Europe are almost never accepted nor welcomed and often are forced to return to the same place they fled from.

Muniz's floating installation was first exhibited during the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015.

EXHIBIT 15- 'IL SANTUARIO DELLA MADONNA DI PORTO SALVO' by GIACAMO SFERLAZZO 2011:

Askavusa (meaning ‘Barefoot’ in Sicilian) is a collective of artists based on Lampedusa who in 2009 began gathering migrants’ belongings washed up on the beaches – toys, prayer books, photographs, letters. Giacomo Sferlazzo has been creating artworks from migrants’ belongings since 2005. Il Santuario della Madonna di Porto Salvo (2011), is an assemblage of boat timber and assorted flotsam. Sferlazzo explains:

“For me it was natural to use the boats’ wood, shoes, sacred texts and other objects...I wanted to give back to the world a voice choked from the past.”

Sferlazzo's hope is that the migrants’ everyday belongings will allow us to dwell on the subject, and imagine the stories behind them, enabling migrants to be seen as individuals, rather than as bodies and numbers.

Originally this was housed in the Lampedusa Porto M migration museum in 2011.

EXHIBIT 17- 'LAUNDROMAT 'by AI WEIWEI 2018:

This was first exhibited in The Fire Station in Doha, Qatar. The clothes were previously owned by refugees and asylum seekers from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The artist collected, washed, ironed and steamed the items that were left behind at the Idomeni Camp located in Greece.

‘It is a way of showcasing the reality behind the ongoing global refugee crises and its severe humanitarian implications.’

Through activism, WeiWei wishes to ‘evoke a sense of empathy and compassion among visitors for a better geopolitical environment.’

EXHIBIT 19- 'CHARON-CARRIER OF MIGRANT SOULS' by GIAMPIERO ABATE 2018:

Charon, the ferryman of souls across the rivers Styx. He looks like he is saving these souls, but he's not.

The journey of migrants across the Mediterranean has been good business for North African criminals, but with, of course, the help of European organizations. Here is Charon, looking like a western businessman, ferrying desperate souls across the sea. Their life jackets are their rubber dinghy.

Here is the business system linked to the smuggling of migrants. Who cares why they fleeing? All that matters is the money. The migrants are humiliated and transported like slaves, often to their deaths. Charon is there for that.

EXHIBIT 21- 'THE FEAR OF LAMPEDUSA' by CHRISTIAN SEEBAUER 2011:

The oil painting depicts an overloaded boat of migrants traveling to Lampedusa – the island is silhouetted in the background. The child drowning in the water is lit up by a helicopter’s search light.

The artist brings to light ‘out of anger and incomprehension’ the dangers migrants undergo when travelling. Seebauer claims that the fact that ‘Europe looks away and closes its eyes to the problem’ is ‘a story that cannot be put into words’, and through his art he wishes to ‘bring the topic on canvas’ and raise awareness.

EXHIBIT 23- 'HOPING TO SURVIVE' by RAZIEH GHOLAMI 2019:

This painting is entitled 'Hoping to Survive' and was created by an Afghanistan refugee named Razieh Gholami, living in the Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos.

The painting visually shows the dangerous pursuit of safety and freedom to get into the confines of Europe's safety walls. Unfortunately, European countries are not lending a hand nor accepting these desperate refugees with welcome arms, but instead the different countries are represented by their flags as fingernails flicking the refugees away and sending them back to where they departed from. The hands appear to be protecting major European capitals such as, Madrid, Paris and London from these hopeless, unarmed refugees, who have already succeeded in making the dangerous journey in flimsy dinghies and unsafe fishing boats.

Gholami's personal struggle of his journey to safety is expressed through his painting and he has been quoted as saying "the journey to safety is hard. Europe doesn’t want refugees. We thought we had arrived to safety but Europe is trying to make us struggle more and send us back to danger".

The painting represents the tighter border controls the countries have adapted to defer the refugees, but has subsequently raised fears of a humanitarian crisis, as it has left tens of thousands stranded in Greece and Turkey with no hope to survive.

This painting was previously sold to a private collector who has kindly lent the artwork to this exhibition.