Migration: Illusion, reality, and performance

Set in Freedom Square, the heart of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka campus, “Temporary Havens: Chronicles of the Displaced” is the theme of an ongoing art exhibition by Samuel Nnorom that opened on July 18 and runs until August 14, 2024. It is a public art installation that examines the theme of modern bordering and migration encounters in the context of the 2024 IAS-UNN International Conference, held on July 18-20, 2024, at the Nsukka campus of the University. Curated by Ugonna Ibekwe, the installation features three white flag poles representing world peace and 390 vibrant coloured mosquito nets, [configured] to symbolise refugee shelters and organisations with a stake within refugee camps.

“Temporary Havens” celebrates the resilience of migrants while highlighting their vulnerabilities.” Consequently, the artist invites viewers to “engage with the complex realities faced by migrants, refugees, and internally displaced persons in our contemporary world.” It allows the audience to confront the multifaceted dimensions of migration, from the poignant illusions that shape perceptions to the stark realities faced by migrants worldwide. The installation not only explores the physical journeys but also delves into the emotional and psychological performances that unfold in the lives of those on the move. Through a diverse range of performances and perspectives, the artist compels us to reconsider our understanding of migration as a complex interplay of illusion, stark reality, and the profound human performances that shape our global landscape.

Migration comprises two broad categories – voluntary or forced. Voluntary migration is undertaken in search of better economic opportunities, while forced migration involves people who leave due to natural disasters or civil disturbances in search of a more secure place and may be described as displaced persons or, if remaining in the home country, internally displaced persons. The exhibition focuses on the latter people and highlights how refugees, displaced persons, and asylum-seekers navigate through the threats arising from their predicament, which include gender-based violence, accommodation, education, food, health, security, and death, among others.

In Africa, for instance, there was this desperation of the migrants trying to cross to Europe through the Mediterranean Sea (the route from Algeria, Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia to Italy and Malta), which climaxed and resulted in the 2015 European migrant crisis. A migration route described as the world’s deadliest, as many African migrants who are fleeing war, conflict, climate change, and poverty died in the process through drowning due to boat capsize. “According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) nearly 2,500 people died or went missing as they attempted to cross the stretch in 2023.” (https://www.nrc.no/feature/2024/10-things-you-should-know-about-the-Central-Mediterranean-migration-route/).

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There is also the issue of nearly 7 million Palestinian refugees around the world due to the over seven decades of Israeli-Palestinian perennial conflict. This figure includes an estimated 1.9 million displaced people among Gaza’s population of 2.1 million due to the ongoing conflict.(https://www.refugeesinternational.org/palestine-israel/). Following late February 2022 Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, about 3.7 million people remained displaced within Ukraine, and 6.3 million Ukrainians remained abroad, having fled the war as refugees and asylum-seekers, resulting in humanitarian and other related civil crises (https://reporting.unhcr.org/operational/situations/ukraine-situation). Down home, “There are 3.646 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Nigeria because of the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast, and the Fulani herdsmen-farmers conflict and generalized violence in the northwest and Middle Belt regions” (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre [IDMC], 2023).These IDPs also share in the same dismal experiences migrants grapple with globally.

Inspired by the migrants’ traumatising experiences, the Fine and Applied Arts Department, in collaboration with the Theatre and Film Studies Department of the University, staged a performance capturing the exhibition theme influenced by the popular notion of seeing migration as problematic. But staying on this path alone will only produce a parochial and lopsided reading of this show. Consequently, a broader perspective that includes the gains of migration becomes imperative for a holistic and balanced interpretation because research has shown that migration is not all about a catalogue of woes, frustrations, and dismal experiences; it also has some benefits. Migration brings innovation, fuels and sustains economic growth, enriches cultural diversity, acts as an agent of social change, and improves the quality of life of people, among others.

So, contemplating the above benefits that are quite compelling, I conclude that the resilience demonstrated by the migrants stems more from the benefits and not just simply trying to overcome the vulnerabilities en route on their journey to a temporary haven, as suggested by the exhibition theme. So, for me, the sought-after haven in the context of this show is not just temporary but a desirable and permanent one.

Finally, the show can be adjudged successful as the centralising objective of interrogating the resilience and vulnerabilities of the migrants was achieved through the metaphoric use of a bright coloured net to create the illusion of beauty in a refugee/displaced persons’ camp that is a façade, as the performance reveals. Furthermore, the installation elements blended so seamlessly to create unity, an attribute of a successful work of art, achieved through the repetitive and regular arrangements of the nets to create rhythm and movement; and the use of evenly distributed coloured nets and performance artists to achieve variety that attracts and sustains interest.

Samuel Nnorom, a sculptor and currently an MFA student at the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, is globally acclaimed for his signature bubble-coloured cloth sculpture made from pieces of Ankara fabric/African wax print fabrics and waste foams. The acceptability of his art is evidenced in the multiple awards his short practice has garnered nationally and internationally. Some of the awards include the first global prize winner of the M&C Saatchi and Saatchi Group Art for Change Award 2022, the first African Prize Cassirer Welz Award South Africa 2021, and Ex aequo the Ettore e Ines Fico Prize at the Artissima fair Italy 2023, among others. Nnorom has also exhibited nationally and internationally.

Kanu, an art historian, critic, and curator, writes from Nsukka.