Location: La Plate-Forme, 67 /69 Rue Henri Terquem, 59140 Dunkerque (FR)
This exhibition, together with Ici et là – Here and there in Hastings (UK), is a trans-border and international art project for Dunkerque 2013 (DK13, Capitale régionale de la culture). On that occasion Bie Michels made two video installations, each inspired by the migration from France to the UK. This extreme situation of refugees and asylum seekers trying to cross the Channel on one side, and yet arrived on the other side, presented her with an opportunity to intimately investigate the complex relations that people maintain with identity and loss, fragility and (in)stability.
The video No Words shows an installation of 6 ice cubes on a dike (Digue du Braeck) next to the water, mixed with images of a refugee camp in Grande Synthe and images taken on several places in the port. The ice cubes are in the form of little houses, the same as the cabanes of the refugee camp.
In addition to the video installation, Michels performs an action during the opening day on the central square of Dunkirk, Place Jean Bart, flyering a poetic protest pamflet near to the reinstalled ice houses.
In La Plate-Forme, the video Surrounding Water, the other part of her project, made for the exhibition Ici et là – Here and there in Hastings (UK), is shown again. (Read more)
Curator Christine Gist
Article in HART (Dutch)
Photos Bie Michels and Danny Vercauteren