Displaced: Contemporary Artists Confront the Global Refugee Crisis Exhibition

SITE Santa Fe received a grant for the inclusion of six large-scale c-prints by Richard Mosse for the 2020 exhibition Displaced: Contemporary Artists Confront the Refugee Crisis.

The installation included the following works: Moira Camp, Lesbos, Greece (2016); Bautzen Refugee Shelter, Eastern Saxony, Germany (2016); Idomeni Camp, Greek- Macedonia Border (2016); Skaramagas Camp, Athens, Greece (2016); Softball Stadium, Hellinikon Olympic Complex, Athens, Greece (2016); and Ventimiglia Camp, Imperia, Italy (2016).

Using a military-grade thermal camera, which is typically reserved for battlefield situational awareness and long-range border enforcement, Richard Mosse created this series of massive and immersive panoramic photographs, or “heat maps,” documenting the living conditions of thousands of refugees awaiting asylum in Europe. The Mosse installation was the second to last stop on the journey through the exhibition following installations of film, object, sculpture, and sound. Produced through a technique that articulates the radiation of heat from human bodies, objects, and structures, each massive photograph emphasizes the enormity of the global refugee crisis while simultaneously revealing a very intimate and interconnected struggle for human survival.

Displaced: Contemporary Artists Confront the Global Refugee Crisis was an exhibition focusing on human migrations and displacements of the past, present, and future. Through works created in a range of media, artists from around the globe foreground forgotten histories, ask us to bear witness to the highest levels of human displacement on record, and imagine futures where migration is essential for survival. The exhibition poses critical questions around this global crisis, and illuminates the complexities surrounding the urgent social, political, and environmental issues that frame the circumstances of displacement.

The show included the work of 11 internationally acclaimed artists, and was accompanied by community-centered education and public programs that offered accessible entry points to experiencing and understanding the global refugee crisis. Displaced brought this vast and urgent crisis to the forefront of visitors’ consciousness, cultivating an understanding and appreciation of refugees that reside in northern New Mexico communities, and planted a seed to inspire action for positive social change both locally and globally.