A film by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay Un-Documented shows that there is a strong connection between the plundered objects in European museums and the calls of asylum seekers trying to enter the countries of their former European colonizers: these are twinned migrations. The first migration is of the objects, generating professional care, scrupulous documentation, and generous hospitality in museums and archives: they are the (relatively) well-documented. The second migration is of people who do not have the documents that would allow them access to care and hospitality, and the documents they need to rebuild their homes and worlds.
The theft of people’s objects leaves them endangered. The forced migration of objects is not separate from the forced migration of people who are forced to seek a home in the places where their objects are preserved. As such, migrants and asylum seekers are falsely perceived “objectless” and deemed “undocumented” by border regimes. As the “undocumented,” they are denied free movement and unduly criminalized.
Against Alain Resnais and Chris Marker’s film Statues Also Die— Un-Documented argues that statues plundered from imperial exhibitions do not die. It’s true that those who plundered millions of statues and objects, isolating them far from their communities in museum vitrines, should be charged with the attempted murder of these objects. The objects, however, survived and still stand alert, even when they are confined to glass cases and imperial archives, awaiting reunion with their people, elsewhere or here. The rights of the “undocumented” are inscribed in the plundered objects themselves: colonizers stole not just statues, but rights inscribed in objects. Yet, the statues still live—and can be reclaimed and the rights inscribed in them renewed.
Part 1: The Right to Live Nearby One’s Objects (11 min)
Script and director: Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Voice and Music composed and performed by Edoheart
Camera: Bona Manga Bell
Production: Eyal Vexler
Editing & Graphics: Claudia Yile
Sound editor: Ziad Fayed
Part 2: Unconditional Disowning (11 min)
Script and director: Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Voice and Music composed and performed by Awori
Camera: Bona Manga Bell
Production: Eyal Vexler
Editing & Graphics: Claudia Yile
Sound editor: Ziad Fayed
Part 3: The Gift (12 min)
Script and director: Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Voice and Music composed and performed by Moor Mother
Camera: Bona Manga Bell
Production: Eyal Vexler
Editing & Graphics: Claudia Yile
Sound editor: Ziad Fayed
Wednesday 16 December, 18:00 CET, (online) conversation and screening