Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Institut für Europäische Ethnologie

Persefoni Myrtsou

Spaces of migration – spaces of artists: The production of space and “homing” as artistic and social practice

Betreuung: Prof. Dr. Regina Römhild

Förderung: Alexander S. Onassis Foundation

 

Abstract

The proposed research intends to examine the relations between transnational migration, visual art and “space production” in cities.  More specifically, I intend to elucidate the ways in which migrating visual artists perceive, relate to and appropriate physical and non-physical space through their everyday practices in urban settings.  The main research-questions are: what are the strategies of establishing a “home” through mental relocation of a “home” from the past, appropriation of new places and production of new physical and non-physical spaces, such as social environments? To what extent does this process of “homing" as a form of space production in a transnational setting, affect the artist’s biography and the artwork? This research project has two central goals: first to explore the effect of transnational living on the practice of “homing” and, second, to discover through the practice of the artists the aesthetic dimensions of transnationalism. This project shall draw on four academic fields, (i) migration studies; (ii) anthropological urban studies with a special emphasis on urban cultural production; (iii) space-theories; (iv) aesthetic theories and artistic practice.

 

Schlüsselbegriffe

artists' migration, arts-based migration research, ethnography and art, space theory, urban studies, home and homing, visual art practice

 

Curriculum Vitae

BA (Hons) in Fine Art – Glasgow School of Art
MA in Art in Context – Universität der Künste Berlin

 

Kontakt

E-Mail: myrtsou@hu-berlin.de

Webseite: www.persefoni.co.uk