Transient Matter: Online Exhibit

The European Union desperately tries to keep migrants from the Global South “out” through the securitization and militarization of its borders, yet migrants continue to pursue increasingly dangerous sea-routes.

The EU’s response to the so-called “migration crisis” has involved lethal policies that strategically funnel migrants through the most perilous and deadly routes to Europe possible —similar to the “prevention through deterrence” policy employed by the United States at the US-Mexico border.

Media attention on this issue peaked in 2015 and 2016, at the highest point of the Syrian exodus, as people escaped violence and conflict. Although the world’s attention has now subsided, the Mediterranean today remains a highly trafficked passage for migrants and asylum seekers. In 2019 alone, more than 1,300 fatalities were recorded in the Mediterranean by the International Organization for Migration.

Border crossing produces its own assemblages, resulting in distinctive materialities. This exhibit presents a range of objects from Mediterranean border crossings that were collected on the Greek island of Lesvos, providing direct and tangible connections to the realities of these journeys.

Filmed at Skala Sykamias, North Lesvos, one of the most important landing sites for migrants crossing by sea from Turkey to Greece, and thus to the European Union. Rubber boats like this, loaded well above capacity, are used regularly for the crossing. They are often piloted by migrants themselves who cannot afford to pay smugglers for the crossing. Around 700 boats have crossed to Lesvos in 2019 alone, and many more have been stopped by border guards. Skala is a picturesque village which features prominently in Greek literature, and more recently it has become the epicenter of migrant support initiatives and solidarity ventures.

Lifevest Cemetery: From Landing Site to Landfill

Life Vests

These life vests were excavated by Yannis Hamilakis, Darcy Hackley and Miriam Rothenberg, in July 2017 from the “Lifevest Cemetery”, a dumping site near the town of Molyvos in Lesvos.

The “Lifevest Cemetery” has become a potent symbol of mass migration. Some of the life vests are personalized, like the grey vest inscribed in Arabic and English with the name “Maki”. Some come from decommissioned ships in Morocco or airlines in Turkey. Most of them are imitations of well-known brands, of questionable buoyancy, manufactured in back street workshops in Turkey to meet the demand. All were worn by people making the life-threatening journey across the sea, some of whom may not have survived the crossing.

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Inner Tubes and Flotation Devices

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The Body

These objects were excavated in 2017 from the “Lifevest Cemetery” in Lesvos, by Yannis Hamilakis, Darcy Hackley, and Miriam Rothenberg. Collectively, they speak of the diversity of border assemblages, making at the same time visible and tangible the interwoven stories, fates, and aspirations of the people who brought them to the border.

Medical gloves from an American Airlines plane, perhaps used by volunteers working with migrants. It is unclear under which circumstances these gloves arrived in Lesvos; nonetheless, they evoke the sterilized processing practices employed by border security personnel who are trained by national and international institutions to approach migrant bodies and possessions as contaminants.

Toothpaste manufactured in Iran and brought to Lesvos. Hygiene products, seemingly insignificant and quotidian, are often amongst the few belongings people choose to bring with them.

Faced with this small foil package containing flu tablets from Iraq, we can imagine that someone who was sick decided to pack this medication amongst the very few belongings carried on the long journey across the border, and indeed used all but one tablet.

This medication bottle of “Stress B” pills produced in British Columbia, Canada reveals the complex itineraries of the objects that make up border assemblages. This bottle may have belonged to a Canadian volunteer on the island. Especially since 2015, hundreds or thousands of people from around the world traveled to Lesvos to volunteer in migrant support organizations. Their work, especially at landing sites, was and is extremely stressful. 

This bottle made by an Iraqi company is an object of care that still preserves traces of milk. Despite xenophobic portrayals of border crossings as mass invasions to be feared and prevented, this object reminds us that migrants are children, women, men and entire families who often have no other option but to leave their homes or host countries, faced with enduring conditions of colonial displacement, violence, and hardship.