Migrations



As barbed wire goes up between communities and around continents, Migrations explored strategies for crossing artistic, cultural and political borders. A conference in association with Amnesty International was followed by Eurodac Express, a journey through the hardshell of Fortress Europe that followed the route of migrants and refugees through the forests of Russia, across Poland and through the internal borders of Europe, and culminated in a major exhibition at Gallery Oldham with photography and film giving a voice to the migrants met during the project and their experiences of displacement and travel.

Visit Eurodac express website.

Download Migrations feature by Drew Hemment in Mute (pdf/1.3meg).



Eurodac Express

Eurodac Express is an innovative and politically charged project involving the internationally renowned photographer Shahdul Alam (Founder and Director of the DRIK Project in Bangladesh, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, and Chair of the International Jury for the World Press Photo Contest for 2003) - whose regular practice involves working with migrants in the sub-continent - working alongside UK sound artist Elliot Perkins (phenom/Morr Music).

Shahidul will travel overland to and through the frontiers of Fortress Europe - travelling through the forests of Russian, across Poland, entering Europe and crossing its internal borders - tracing the route that migrants and refugees take. During this journey he will work with the refugees he meets on his way to explore the context that led them to leave their homes and that they find upon arrival in Europe, in order to challenge some of the stereotypes that have emerged of "bogus" asylum seekers and facilitate a re-examination of notions of belonging, citizenship and displacement amongst the diverse communities in Europe.


In the context of a drift in European policy towards increasing insularity and hostility towards immigrant communities, refugees and cultural diversity as such, the project is an intervention into the insidious and invasive measures being adopted by the European Union and member states that target and disadvantage ethnic monorities in general, and people fleeing hunger and persecution in particular. The project will seek to 'trip the wire' of the Eurodac and Schengen systems that have been introduced - with no democratic scrutiny - to monitor and control the movement of asylum seekers and "illegal immigrants" respectively.

The title of the project, Eurodac Express, both refers to the way in which this combination of technology and legislative powers has been rushed into service without proper assessment or checks, and aims to challenge the view that the journeys of migrants and refugees to Europe are an 'express' route to an easy life aided and abetted by the supposedly 'soft' policies and policing of European states.


Eurodac Express will involve the participant artists extending their existing practice in interesting and new directions. Shahidul Alam will work in digital video as well as in still images, and will collaborate - with Elliot Perkins - on the production of an integrated audiovisual film and installation for the first time. Elliot Perkins has gained a deserved reputation for his electronic music with recordings on Morr Music, but was becoming frustrated with the genre and has ceased production of his previous work in order to undertake more politically engaged projects, of which this is the first.

The project will culminate in a residency with school children and asylum seeker families in Oldham and other towns in the North of England that have been the scene of horrific racist violence, leading to work presented in a major exhibition premiered at Gallery Oldham and then toured internationally, retracing Shahidul's journey with new work contributed by school children along the way.