Understanding Displacement Aesthetics and Creating Change in the Art Gallery for Refugees, Migrants and Host Communities

当今世界有7080万人被迫流离失所(难民署《全球被迫流离失所趋势》，2018年)。难民、移民和寻求庇护者处于国际政治的前沿，他们是被定义为“危机”的人群，而联合国和人道主义机构则试图弥合各国在援助和重新安置政策方面的差距。视觉和手工艺艺术家在联合国和人道主义福利方案、艺术治疗和传播人权方面发挥了历史上重要但较少被研究的作用。然而，难民和移民也可以表现为无名的人流和被动的援助接受者，这可能会给难民和收容社区带来压力。值得注意的是，艺术行业和艺术画廊在审美化受战争和流离失所影响的人们的经历方面遇到了平行的问题。虽然艺术在挑战对难民和移民的敌意表达方面发挥了强大的作用，但在现实中，难民艺术家和策展人在主流画廊文化中的机会仍然有限，与收容社区进行人际对话和文化间交流的机会仍然有限。它调查了1945年后如何在艺术和手工艺的实践和展览、联合国赞助的欧洲和巴勒斯坦的福利计划以及国际艺术博物馆中出现“置换美学”。这项研究试图了解艺术的使用和实践、文化刻板印象的影响和抵制、艺术与人道主义情绪和行动的相互作用以及难民和移民的政治分类之间的关系。为了理解和利用这段历史，该项目确定了置换美学如何在当前国际艺术界的难民危机以及希腊、巴勒斯坦、澳大利亚和英国的草根艺术倡议中继续运作。至关重要的是，这个项目试图超越对比喻的关注，通过放大艺术实践如何提高难民社区的潜力和韧性来实现这一目标。因此，该项目的目标是通过将学者、艺术家、移民和难民背景的策展人与国际知名的艺术非政府组织在战争中的地位以及英国两家领先的艺术画廊--曼彻斯特美术馆(MAG)和惠特沃斯美术馆(WAG)--聚集在一起，改变流离失所的美学。这项研究解决了创意艺术家和策展人的雄心，他们作为移民和难民，面临着特殊的职业障碍，但却不得不将自己的工作重点放在自己的局外人身份上。一项包容性的、共同设计的艺术项目计划将促进艺术创作、参与性展览，并创造一个社区“欢迎空间”，作为曼彻斯特美术馆的永久性基础设施改变。这些项目将产生研究数据，以评估艺术博物馆如何有效地支持难民/移民艺术家和社区，并在社区之间建立团结。该项目由一组经验丰富的学者领导，他们研究战争和流离失所的文化史(PI)、艺术史和当代艺术(CI)、文化理论和复原力研究(RF)以及参与式艺术方法(团队)。显然，这些资深学者也是经验丰富的策展人，CI也是一名执业艺术家，他们将与MAG、WAG和非政府组织在曼彻斯特的当地参与者合作，共同设计影响项目。这是一个难得的机会，可以促进置换美学的历史，并做出有利于当地社区的可持续变化，同时推动收集、策展和表现艺术的方法。

There are 70.8 million forcibly displaced people in the world today (UNHCR Global Trends in Forced Displacement, 2018). Refugees, migrants and asylum seekers are at the forefront of international politics as populations defined by 'crisis', while the UN and humanitarian agencies attempt to bridge gaps in national policies on aid and resettlement. Visual and craft artists have played an historically important yet lesser-studied role in UN and humanitarian welfare programmes, in art therapy, and in communicating human rights. However, refugees and migrants can also be represented as nameless human flows and passive recipients of aid, which may strain both refugee and host communities. Significantly, the art industry and art galleries encounter parallel problems in aestheticizing the experience of people affected by war and displacement. While art asserts a powerful role in challenging hostile representations of refugees and migrants, in reality opportunities for refugee artists and curators in mainstream gallery culture, and opportunities for interpersonal dialogue and intercultural exchange with host communities remain limited.Understanding Displacement Aesthetics proposes a timely reappraisal of this field of vision by historicising the humanitarian aspirations of art and craft, and analysing the impact of artistic responses to displacement and refugees. It investigates how 'displacement aesthetics' emerged after 1945 in both the practice and exhibition of art and craft, UN-sponsored welfare programmes in Europe and Palestine, and international art museums. The research seeks to understand the relationship between the uses and practice of art, the influence of and resistance to cultural stereotypes, art's interplay with humanitarian sentiment and action, and the political categorisation of refugees and migrants. Seeking to understand and utilise this history, the project identifies how displacement aesthetics continues to operate in the current refugee crisis in the international art world and in grass-roots artistic initiatives in Greece, Palestine, Australia and the UK. Crucially, this project seeks to move beyond a focus on tropes, by amplifying how art practices can enhance the potential and resilience of refugee communities.The ambition of the project is, therefore, to transform displacement aesthetics by bringing together academics, artists, curators from migrant and refugee backgrounds together with the internationally renowned arts NGO In Place of War, and two leading art galleries in the UK, Manchester Art Gallery (MAG) and the Whitworth Art Gallery (WAG). The research addresses the ambitions of creative artists and curators, who, as migrants and refugees, face particular career barriers, and yet can be obliged to focus their practice on their outsider identity. A programme of inclusive, co-designed art projects will facilitate art-making, participatory exhibitions, and create a community 'welcome space' as a permanent infrastructural change in Manchester Art Gallery. These projects will generate research data to evaluate how effectively art museums can support refugee/migrant artists and communities and build solidarity across communities. The project is led by a team of experienced scholars in the cultural history of war and displacement (PI), art history and contemporary art (CI), cultural theory and resilience studies (RF), and participatory art methods (team). Distinctively, these senior academics are also experienced curators, and the CI is also a practising artist, who will co-design the impact projects in partnership with MAG, WAG and the NGO In Place of War in collaboration with local participants in Manchester. This is an exceptional opportunity to catalyse the history of displacement aesthetics and make sustainable changes that benefit local communities, while advancing approaches to collecting, curating and representing art.