Last week, I went to the Museum of Modern Art and saw Bouchra Khalili’s The Mapping Journey Project that is on display until October 10th. The exhibition features a series of videos that details the stories of a few individuals who have been forced by political and economic circumstances to travel illegally throughout the Mediterranean basin to find new homes. They are projected on separate screen throughout the museum’s selected space. In each single video, she the individuals narrate and show his or her own journey by tracing their steps with a permanent marker on a world map. Only the narrators’ voices and hands are visible while their faces remain unseen to perhaps protect their identity.

Museum critics have said that Khalili’s work takes on the challenge of developing critical and ethical approaches to questions of citizenship, community, and political agency. The argument is true and definitely notable in all of her interviewees’ videos. For instance, in “Mapping Journey #3,” an unidentified man talks about the amount of detours he talks to avoid state official checkpoints to visit his girlfriend. He states how it used be a simple hour trip that has turned into multiple hours due to government officials making it difficult to go through Palestine into Jerusalem. In “Mapping Journey #4,” a woman from Mogadishu discusses how she got caught along her journey to seek refugee in another country and ended up being deported to Italy. Although she has taken advantage and made use of her new home, she’s unhappy because she’s stuck in a country she doesn’t want to be in. In “Mapping Journey #2,” another man talks about how he was captured and unfortunately deported to Italy. All he seeks to do is to get papers and find work so he may provided for his mother. However, he is unable to accomplish his goals because the government makes it extremely difficult to give refugees papers.

Overall, I found the piece very intriguing. I have passed by the exhibition multiple times in other recent visits to the MoMA and was always drawn to it, but never stopped since I never heard any audio. It turns out one must wear headphones to hear the piece which makes sense or else everyone’s stories will topple over one another. It makes the exhibition intimate. I liked how it was a mixture of women and men’s stories. Khalili definitely brought attention to difficulties governments have caused refugees go through to get shelter.