The Suitcase

Visual Metaphors of Travel

Marcel Duchamp. Boite-en-Valise (Box in a Suitcase), 1935-41. Leather suitcase containing miniature replicas of Duchamp's works, made when artist immigrated to America.

THE BODY/ THE NATION/ BLOOD

COMMUNITY/BORDER

PLACE/ DISPLACEMENT

POWER

MOVEMENT/ HOME/ SEARCH

OBJECTIFICATION/ RESISTANCE/ ENGAGEMENT

MIGRANT/ PILGRIM/SMUGGLER

KIMSOOJA

Kimsooja, Cities on the Move - 2727 km Bottari Truck , 1997, Single Channel Video (still)

Kimsooja, A Needle Woman, 1991, Single Channel Video (still)

Tehching Hsieh

Tehching Hsieh, Outdoor Piece, 1981-82

Do-ho Suh

Do-ho Suh, Home within Home, 2009-2011

Santiago Sierra

Santiago Sierra, 250 cm Line Tattooed on 6 Paid People, 1991

Yin Xiuzhen

Yin Xiuzhen, Portable Cities, 2001-ongoing

Francis Alys

Francis Alys, When Faith Moves Mountains, 2002

Guillermo Gomez-Pena and Coco Fusco

Edward Said's Orientalism, 1978

"Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted" (Reflections on Exile)

Discussion Questions

How do the readings relate the experience of migration and displacement (positive? negative?)

What are modes of resistance offered by the authors?

(In your answers, please refer to specific artists)

Where or what is the power of the migrant?