Curated by Diana Ali at Art Center Caravel, ARTE.M Association, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal 2024 & Arthall, Victoria, Gozo, Malta 2025

Concept:

We are facing many barriers globally where our identities are being bruised, rejected, and turned away. This leaves a tension for bodies, thoughts, and circumstances to be accepted and co-exist. Artists have been invited to contest and question what it means to face barriers. Often our artworks have been declined from being shown and exhibited. This exhibition gives an opportunity for the art to migrate. There may not be a utopia, but there are ways of overcoming barriers. Imagine the artwork being personified. What would it say if it had freedom of movement, no immigration law, finding asylum and a sense of belonging without being displaced? A fantastic array of international artists come together in one space to question, confront and seek sanctuary through their artwork.

Exhibition information/Flyer:

Exhibition information/Flyer:

UPDATE 2025

In 2024, a majority of the work was detained by the Portuguese customs on the way to be exhibited in Madeira. The artwork did not have a freedom to roam. In 2025, the art hopes to confront crossings and overcome barriers by having the opportunity to be exhibited at Arthall, Malta.

Miguel Jeronimo (Portugal)

'Coming Home'

(Photography 2020) 


Coming home, a series of photos of Cambodians who were forced by Covid-19 to come back from Thailand and Malaysia, where they were looking for a better life. Focused not only on raising the voices of migrants from underprivileged backgrounds and the challenges they faced during the largest obstacle to human mobility of our generation, the pandemic, this project aims to be a celebration of movement, resilience and the natural human desire for self-actualization. Presenting personal stories of coming back home and waiting to return elsewhere, not just geographically but emotional and aspirationally. Created in collaboration with IOM-UN Migration.


Miguel Lopes Jeronimo (Portugal, 1987) is a freelance photographer, curator, writer and artist based for 8 years in Phnom Penh, with a total of 70 exhibitions in Cambodia — including solo and group shows on topics such as environment, social inequality, gender, disability and human rights. With a background in robotics and emotions in artificial intelligence, he’s passionate about photography and working with NGOs on projects with impact, collaborating with other artists and creating art shows with meaning.

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