Insecurities

On view at MoMA, “Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter” explores how architecture, art and design have addressed the contemporary notion of living.

Nizip II, Container Camp. Tobias Hutzler, 2014. Courtesy of the artist.

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.

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 — **Top:** Tobias Hutzler, Nizip II, Container Camp, 2014. Courtesy of the artist. **Above:** Installation view of “Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter” at the MoMA, New York. © 2016 The Museum of Modern Art. Photo Jonathan Muzikar

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.

Teeter-totter Wall. Rael San Fratello, 2014 .Courtesy of the architects. — Rael San Fratello, Teeter-totter Wall, 2014. Courtesy of the architects

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.

Ifo 2, Dadaab Refugee Camp. Brendan Bannon. 2011 — Brendan Bannon, Ifo 2, Dadaab Refugee Camp, 2011

“Insecurities” raises questions regarding how the design and representation of shelter as a source of security and stability ultimately reflects how refugees are living in permanent upheaval today.

Henk Wildschut, Calais, France, March 2016. Courtesy of the artist

Rael San Fratello, Cactus Wall, 2014. Courtesy of the architects

Nader Khalili, Sandbag Shelter, 1995. Courtesy of the California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture

until 22 January 2017
Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter
Curators: Sean Anderson with Arièle Dionne-Krosnick
MoMA
11 West 53 Street, New York

Insecurities

On view at MoMA, “Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter” explores how architecture, art and design have addressed the contemporary notion of living.

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