Barca Nostra Explained

Barca Nostra ("Our Boat") was a project by Swiss–Icelandic artist Christoph Büchel that displayed at the 2019 Venice Biennale the wreckage of a fishing boat that had sunk with hundreds of migrants aboard. It was among the art world's top stories of the year.

Description

Barca Nostra was a hoisted shipwreck presented at the 2019 Venice Biennale.

The fishing vessel sank on April 18, 2015 after a tragic collision with a Portuguese container ship that had come to its rescue. The Italian Navy estimates that more than 800 migrants died on the vessel, trapped inside its hull. Just twenty-eight people were saved.[1]

Four years after the tragic shipwreck, the boat was released on April 18, 2019, destined for Venice. For the duration of the 58th La Biennale di Venezia, the ship was bearing witness to the thousands who have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean.[2]

Reception

The project was included among 2019's art world top stories.[3]

"It is a very important project, that boat is the symbol both of the human tragedy and of the political crisis that the migrant flow is causing to all of Europe", Giovanni Angileri, chief of staff of the Sicilian cultural heritage department, told CNN.[4]

Barca Nostra was called "a monument to contemporary migration" and a symbol of human tragedy that brings our collective responsibility into focus.[5]

Carlotta Sami, a spokeswoman for the United Nations’ refugee agency visited the boat and said: “I feel this cannot be considered a relic of the past. Today, a new shipwreck is telling us that that boat is our present.”[6]

The artwork has prompted critics for not providing any signage. Matthew Collings concluded "the work could not be more on the nail" since "people not knowing or caring about what is right in front of them, a thing they could in fact quite easily investigate, is surely the whole problem of the migrant crisis. It is the reason it remains a crisis."[7]

More than any artwork in the exhibition, by rendering visible what is generally hidden from public view, its presence encapsulates the danger, tragedy and trauma of forced migration.[8]

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. News: Miglierini. Julian. May 24, 2016. Anatomy of a shipwreck. en-GB. BBC News. May 4, 2020.
  2. Web site: MAVERICK LIFE: Barca Nostra and migrant deaths at sea — when art shames reality. Harris. Alistair. Daily Maverick. en. May 4, 2020.
  3. Web site: From a Paris inferno to the Leonardo tussle: the art world's top stories of 2019. www.theartnewspaper.com. December 10, 2019. May 4, 2020.
  4. Web site: Hundreds of people died on this boat. Now it will be displayed at the 'Olympics of the art world'. Gianluca Mezzofiore . Livia Borghese. CNN. en. May 4, 2020.
  5. Web site: How to spend 72 hours at the Venice Biennale Christie's. Lack. Jessica. www.christies.com. en. May 4, 2020.
  6. News: Analysis A migrant ship with a tragic history is at the Venice Biennale. A new migrant boat sinking shows it's more than a relic.. O'Grady. Siobhán. The Washington Post. en. May 4, 2020.
  7. Web site: What you need to see at the Venice Biennale 2019. Collings. Matthew. May 13, 2019. Evening Standard. en. May 4, 2020.
  8. Web site: As we face pressing global issues, the pavilions of Venice Biennale are a 21st century anomaly. Fenner. Felicity. The Conversation. en. May 4, 2020.

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