"Transient Matter: Assemblages of Migration in the Mediterranean". Exhibition. Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University, U.S.A
It is an honor for our children (now young adults) and the ART Bridges initiative, Art Angels Relief Team project (2015–2020), to know that their artistic works, created during their time at the Kara Tepe Refugee Center on the Island of Lesbos in 2016, are now exhibited at the **Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology** at Brown University.
We are proud to have safeguarded and respected these pieces, which were made amid the profound pain of losing a home, a loved one, a country, and enduring the trauma of persecution, bombings, and perilous journeys. Journeys where many of these children, mostly from Syria and Iraq, witnessed family members lost to the waters of the Aegean in their search for Ithaca. Each of them lives in our hearts.
We can still hear their laughter, their unique way of communicating in fragmented English, Greek, Kurdish, Kurmanji, or Arabic, their cries, and their panic attacks as they relived parts of their harrowing journeys. We remember their initial fear of interacting, which gradually gave way to smiles brought by a melody, the sight of a violin, the rhythm of a dance, or the act of expressing their memories, dreams, and anguish through art.
The works on display at the **Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology** were created using recycled materials—like a pizza box that once brought shared joy, later transformed into part of an artistic creation. Mud and olive leaves were finely chopped and painted to represent their beloved dolmas in miniature. A piece of used cotton textile became a canvas for Iraqi children from Shingal and Baghdad, alongside their campmates from Idlib, Syria, and Kabul, Afghanistan, who painted their experiences in watercolors, capturing the odysseys from their homelands to the island of Lesbos.
It's impossible to remember the names of all 9,000+ children, youth, and mothers who shared with us their sorrows, joys, confusion, traditional foods, words, and lullabies from their homelands. Yet their stories and creations remain a powerful testament to resilience, creativity, and humanity. (1)
- This work was created in June 2016 at the Kara Tepe migrant camp, near Mytilini on Lesvos, by children coming from several Middle Eastern and African countries. It was done on the occasion of then-Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon's visit to the camp, as part of the activities of the Art Bridges organization. It depicts the border crossing between Turkey and Greece via Lesvos, and arrival on the island. Oral accounts testify that migrants may have to wait for days or weeks hidden in forested areas before they are placed onto overcrowded, inflatable boats for the crossing. We can also spot depictions of human figures overboard, on what appear to be rough seas.
Curators: Curated by Ayşe Şanlı, Laurel Darcy Hackley, Yannis Hamilakis, and Sherena Razek.