“How architecture, art, and design have addressed contemporary notions of shelter, as seen through migration and global refugee emergencies, is explored in the exhibition Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter, on view at The Museum of Modern Art. Bringing together works across a range of mediums and scales that respond to the complex circumstances brought about by forced displacement, the exhibition focuses on conditions that disrupt conventional images of the built environment as an arbiter of modernity and globalization. The prevalence of shelters and refugee camps throughout the world calls into question the “safety” that they represent.
Recent United Nations figures suggest that more than 60 million individuals worldwide are refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced persons. Where borders once marked the peripheries of nations, today, manifold territories on sea and land have blurred one’s potential confinement within spaces that are determined by external powers. Under these conditions, shelter has been redefined through constant movement or escape. By extension, refugee camps, while once considered to be temporary, are no longer so, and have become a locus through which to examine how human rights intersect with and complicate the making of cities.” — MoMA
Installation view of Insecurities. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, October 1, 2016-January 22, 2017. © 2016 The Museum of Modern Art. Photo: Jonathan Muzikar.
Installation view of Insecurities. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, October 1, 2016-January 22, 2017. © 2016 The Museum of Modern Art. Photo: Jonathan Muzikar.
Installation view of Insecurities. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, October 1, 2016-January 22, 2017. © 2016 The Museum of Modern Art. Photo: Jonathan Muzikar.
Interior of a Better Shelter prototype in Kawergosk Refugee Camp, Erbil, Iraq. Better Shelter. 2015.
Ifo 2, Dadaab Refugee Camp. Brendan Bannon. 2011.
Dunkirk, France. Henk Wildschut. 2010.
Middle Upper Art circumference (MUAC) measuring device. Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). 1994.
Radicalizing the Local: 60 Miles of Trans-Border Urban Conflict project. Teddy Cruz. 2008.
Nizip II, Container Camp. Tobias Hutzler, 2014. Courtesy of the artist.
Calais, France, March 2016. Henk Wildschut, 2016. Courtesy of the artist.
Sandbag Shelter. Nader Khalili, 1995. Courtesy of the California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture.
Refugee Republic. Submarine Channel, 2014. Courtesy of Submarine Channel.
Cactus Wall. Rael San Fratello, 2014. Courtesy of the architects.
Horse Racing Wall. Rael San Fratello, 2014. Courtesy of the architects.
Teeter-totter Wall. Rael San Fratello, 2014 .Courtesy of the architects.
finding one’s shadow in ruins and rubble. Tiffany Chung, 2014. Courtesy of the artist and Tyler Rollins Fine Art.
Insecurities is part of Citizens and Borders, a series of discrete projects at MoMA related to works in the collection offering a critical perspective on histories of migration, territory, and displacement. The exhibition is organized by Sean Anderson, Associate Curator, with Arièle Dionne-Krosnick, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art.
Images courtesy The Museum of Modern Art.