Reframing Migration: Lampedusa, Border Spectacle and the Aesthetics of Subversion (Italian Modernities)

Over the past two decades, national and supranational institutions and the mass media have played a central role in presenting the migrant struggle in a sensational way, spreading an unjustified moral panic and relegating migrants themselves to spaces of invisibility. Building on recent theoretical debates in migration studies around the so-called «autonomy of migration» - which sees people on the move as individuals with self-determination and agency - this book reframes migration in the Mediterranean, and specifically around the island of Lampedusa. In particular, the book explores how activist and art forms have become a platform for subverting the dominant narrative of migration and generating a vital form of political dissent, by revealing the contradictions and paradoxes of the securitarian regime that regulates immigration into Europe. The analysis focuses on works by, among others, Broomberg & Chanarin, Centre for Political Beauty, Forensic Architecture, Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen, Isaac Julien, Tamara Kametani, Bouchra Khalili, Kalliopi Lemos, Zakaria Mohamed Ali, Maya Ramsay, Giacomo Sferlazzo, Aida Silvestri, Ai Weiwei, Lucy Woodand Dagmawi Yimer. La 4e de couv. indique : "Over the past two decades, national and supranational institutions and the mass media have played a central role in presenting the migrant struggle in a sensational way, spreading an unjustified moral panic and relegating migrants themselves to spaces of invisibility.Building on recent theoretical debates in migration studies around the so-called "autonomy of migration" - which sees people on the move as individuals with self-determination and agency - this book reframes migration in the Mediterranean, and specifically around the island of Lampedusa. In particular, the book explores how activist and art forms have become a platform for subverting the dominant narrative of migration and generating a vital form of political dissent, by revealing the contradictions and paradoxes of the securitarian regime that regulates immigration into Europe." Over the past two decades, national and supranational institutions and the mass media have played a central role in presenting the migrant struggle in a sensational way, spreading an unjustified moral panic and relegating migrants themselves to spaces of invisibility.Building on recent theoretical debates in migration studies around the so-called "autonomy of migration" - which sees people on the move as individuals with self-determination and agency - this book reframes migration in the Mediterranean, and specifically around the island of Lampedusa. In particular, the book explores how activist and art forms have become a platform for subverting the dominant narrative of migration and generating a vital form of political dissent, by revealing the contradictions and paradoxes of the securitarian regime that regulates immigration into Europe. -- Provided by publisher Cover Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1: Mapping Lampedusa: Spaces of (In)visibility in the Borderscape of Europe Chapter 2: From Bare Lives to Subjects of Power: A Counter-Map of Resistance Chapter 3: Border Aesthetics and Aesthetics of Subversion: Counter-Narratives in Migratory Contexts Chapter 4: Death and Memory after the Journey: Counter-Commemoration in Art Afterword Bibliography Index