90ft Migrant boat on which around 800 persons died in the Mediterranean on display at Venezia Biennale
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The remains of one of the Mediterranean’s most shocking migration tragedies, in which between 700 and 1,100 people died, is on display in this year’s edition of the Venezia Biennale.
The 90ft fishing boat sank on the night of 18 April 2015 between Libya and the Italian island of Lampedusa, after it collided with a vessel that had responded to its distress call. There were only 28 survivors. The people on board were mostly trapped in the hold as the boat capsized.
The tragedy caused the then Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, to compare the situation for migrants trying to reach Europe to the killing of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica during the Balkans conflict.
A news release for “Barca Nostra,” which means “Our Ship” in Italian, describes the vessel as “a relic of a human tragedy but also a monument to contemporary migration, engaging real and symbolic borders and the (im)possibility of freedom of movement of information and people.” The relic underscores “our mutual responsibility representing the collective policies and politics that create such wrecks,” the statement added.
