2020.06.21 – 2020.06.26
Minim Photography Gallery, Taiwan

Curator:
陳映妤 Yingyu Alicia Chen
朱筱琪 Hsiao-Chi Chu
廖芸婕 Yunjie Liao

* In response to World Refugee Day
* Collaboratively promoted with Refugee Week in The United Kingdom

Press Coverage: “Understanding remains key to changes in refugee situation“
Facebook Event Page: https://fb.me/e/4sf7wZ3lp

Refugee Week 2020: Together: Voices across borders, is my personal co-curatorial project by Yingyu Alicia Chen, Hsiao-Chi Chu and Yunjie Liao. Also, the exhibition and relevant events are part of London Refugee Week 2020.

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“Not sure where to go
Stuck in a place where there is no exit
Many roads are blocked
Down car mirror and see it is a long queue
And lost hope to reach home soon
All we want is to get home before it gets dark”

“I Am Just Stuck“ by Rohingya Refugee Poet Ro Yassin Abdumonab

Do you remember the last time you were forced to migrate or stay? When did COVID-19 start to affect our relations and interactions?

In order to find another possibility, people have embarked on the routes of migration to seek a place where they are no longer just passing by. However, within the turbulence of drift, freedom is not always guaranteed.

When the pandemic has established new walls, human beings are forced into isolation. The epidemic ignores borders and permeates every section of the drifting routes of displaced people.

Coinciding with World Refugee Day on June 20, this exhibition in collaboration with the reporters from Taiwan and the UK, displays the diverse daily life of refugees from #Syria, #Venezuela, #Gaza and #Rohingya people across the world. Through their voices, videos, images and stories, the exhibition disseminates the words of each refugee individual who is eager to voice out across borders under the COVID-19 crisis.

The exhibition also invites audiences to engage in and interact with the refugees who are thousands of kilometres away and seek the route together. The life experiences of us, from different backgrounds, and towards different destinations, may be overlapped, intersected, and connected through more imaginations.

Note: In this exhibition, the definition of “refugee” is not constrained to The UN Refugee Agency’s definition, but rather a general concept. It includes those who are forced to cross a national border to seek asylum owing to unwilling reasons.

「不確定去哪裡，卡在沒有出口的地方。許多道路被封鎖，在後照鏡中，望見一條漫長的隊伍，失去了回家的希望。我們只想在天黑之前回家。」

– 羅興亞難民詩人 Ro Yassin Abdumonab  〈我只是被困住了〉

你／妳記得上一次被迫移動、或被迫停留，是什麼時候嗎？疫情又是從什麼時候開始，影響了你我的互動狀態，與生活位置？

為了尋找另一種可能，人們踏上遷徙的路途，尋覓一個讓自己不再只是過客的地方。然而，在飄移與流動的顛簸中，並非總能找到自由。

當疫情築起新牆，人類被迫各自孤立。但疫情也不分邊界，滲入每一段被迫飄移者的路上。

適逢 6 月 20 日世界難民日，此次展覽，由台灣和英國兩地的故事紀錄者聯手，透過 #跨國界第一線與難民視訊的訪談與紀錄，呈現在2020全球疫情肆虐之下，來自 #敘利亞、＃委內瑞拉、#加薩、#羅興亞人以及世界各地難民的多元日常，透過聲音、影像、文字與故事，傳遞每位難民個體在 #COVID-19 危機之下，渴望穿透邊界的話語。

展覽也邀請民眾共同參與、互動，與數千公里外的難民們一同找路，讓來自不同地方、又將前往不同方向的生命經驗交叉疊覆，讓我們用更多的想像，將彼此牽引在一起。

備註：本次展覽內容，不限於聯合國難民署（UNHCR）依照國際法對「難民」的定義，而是採用廣泛的難民概念，包括任何因非自願因素而被迫穿越國境至他國尋求庇護的人。

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▎Interactive Teaser Online: Find A Way with Refugees
https://pse.is/PAF6P

▎Storytellers: Yingyu Alicia Chen & Ewa Lelontko

▎Photographer: Joss Duncan

▎Artists (A to Z)

#Venezuelan Refugee Musician Laura Pérez
#Syrian artist Omar Alassoura
#Rohingya Refugee Poet Ro Yassin Abdumonab

▎Visual designer: Tsai Cheng Che｜tsai_tsai_experiment

▎Co-exhibition Coordinator

Chang Yi-Tzu ｜Service designer, Loves exploring stories and care about art/design education and public policy
BASED DESIGN｜We are committed to deliver the most effective method of digital communication, using technology to deepen human communication and emotional understanding.

▎Organizer  

Voices Without Borders

Voices Without Borders (VWB) is established by independent journalist Yingyu Alicia Chen, freelance documentary photographer Joss Duncan, and NGO worker Ewa Lelontko. During COVID-19 pandemic, VWB aims to showcase the human side of stories that refugees and forced migrants live under the structure of global inequalities. To voice those who are often left behind. To show that we are not alone and to empower each other. To create a community in a world of uncertainty.

▎Partner

Migrants of the Mediterranean

Migrants of the Mediterranean (MotM) is founded by Pamela Kerpius. MotM records the migrants’ stories by Humanitarian Storytelling approach to present the experience of the individual migrant’s journey, from country of origin to Europe, to see who they are and what it entails to cross the Mediterranean Sea in search of safety, freedom and opportunity. The mission of MotM is to see the trauma people have suffered on their journey as a reality we see as our own, and document it for the historical record. Only by understanding the crisis of humanity before us are we equipped to address it.

▎Special Thanks (A to Z)

Abdullah Alkhonaini
Adri Ochoa
Ana Ce
Brighton Migrants Solidarity (Jacob)
Chang Wei
Chao Yaling
Corona Post. Doom & Bloom (Lisa Söderlindh)
C.W. Lee
Diego Vidal-Cruzprieto
Eva Huang
Eynel Pilatowsky
Lin Tahan
Liu Yi-Zhi
INTARE
Mina Chiang
Minim Photographic Gallery (Naomi & Min)
Pamela Kerpiu
Sean Xie
Sofia Castro
Robbie Porter
Will Yang
Zuya Zheng
and all interviewees and participants 

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