St. Ann's Warehouse Announces Photo Exhibition to Accompany THE JUNGLE

By: Dec. 17, 2018
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St. Ann's Warehouse Announces Photo Exhibition to Accompany THE JUNGLE

St. Ann's Warehouse presents When Does a Place Become Home?, an exhibition of six acclaimed International Artists and photojournalists currently working on the front lines of the world's migrant crisis, from the original Calais Jungle to Serbia to the Southern borders of the U.S. Photographer and filmmaker Miguel Amortegui, photographer Sarah Hickson, conceptual artist Omar Imam, Getty special correspondent John Moore, refugee photographer Abdul Saboor, and visual journalist Griselda San Martin provide a hard look at the complexities of immigration and migration. Their work documents the experiences of people worldwide embarking on perilous journeys to find safety in new homes or temporary stops along the way. The exhibition also features artwork from the Good Chance Dome, which is also currently installed in the vast waterfront theater, and from The Nation's political graphic arts project Opp Art. When Does a Place Become Home?will remain on view throughout the U.S. Premiere run of The Jungle, which continues until January 27, 2019. The free exhibit will be open to the public Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday 2-6pm, and Sunday 12-3pm, now through January 27.

When Does a Place Become Home?

Miguel Amortegui's book Voices of the Jungle gives a specific voice to the thousands of refugees that were trapped in the infamous Jungle in Calais, France. Amortegui shot the images while working in the camp and getting to know its people. He offers an intimate portrait of the life of these refugees-their stories, their hopes, their dreams, and especially their dignity.

Sarah Hickson's Sounds Unseen: A Photographic Memoir of the Calais Sessions captures another dimension of artistic enterprise and community-building in the Jungle. To record The Calais Sessions, an eclectic group of musicians and sound engineers traveled from the UK with instruments, portable sound gear, and a generator. They created a makeshift recording studio and open stage for musicians living in the camp to join with the UK players. The Calais Sessions not only provided some respite from the harsh reality of daily life in a refugee camp, it was a vessel containing beautiful and moving stories, and a source of joyous exchanges and moments of reflection, captured in Hickson's photos.

Live, Love, Refugee is Amsterdam-based artist Omar Imam's photographic response to the chaos erupting in his homeland of Syria. In refugee camps across Lebanon, Imam collaborated with Syrians to create photographs that expressed their realities, rather than presenting them as a simple statistic. As a refugee himself, Imam understands the loss and chaos of being displaced from one's home. He also knows that dreams-of escape, of love, of terror-cannot be eradicated. His images peel back the facade of flight to reveal the spirit of those who persevere, despite losing everything that is familiar.

John Moore has spent much of the last decade photographing issues of undocumented immigration to the United States from Central America and Mexico. He's taken a broad approach, focusing on asylum seekers fleeing violence, migrants searching for economic opportunity, and the U.S. federal government's response to pursue, detain, and deport them. Throughout, Moore has tried to humanize this story. In June, he documented immigrant crossings under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy. The pictures he made on that trip of a young girl crying were widely published-and their use hotly debated.

Abdul Saboor, a refugee from Afghanistan now living in Paris, has documented the Balkan Route from Afghanistan to the EU and continues to document the lives of asylum seekers in Paris. The Barracks, in Belgrade, hosted roughly 1,200 refugees who were stuck in Serbia, on the borders of the EU. They lived through the extremely cold winter months without showers, toilets, or clean water to drink. The squat was filled with toxic smoke as its inhabitants burned "sleepers" and railway tires to cook and stay warm. Saboor met Good Chance Theatre in Paris in January 2018 and became a key member of the company, photographing performances with local artists and refugees from across the world.

At the juncture of San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico, the border wall's rusting steel bars plunge into the sand, extending 300 feet into the Pacific Ocean, and casting a long and conflicting shadow. New York City-based Spanish photographer Griselda San Martin's The Wall documents Friendship Park, a stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border where families meet to share intimate moments through the metal fence that separates them. San Martin's goal is to transform the discourse of border security into a conversation about immigrant visibility, addressing audiences on both sides of the wall by challenging popular assumptions, reminding them that they are seen, heard, and matter.

When Does a Place Become Home? is produced by St. Ann's Warehouse in partnership with Good Chance Theatre and United Photo Industries, which curated and designed it. The exhibition in St. Ann's Warehouse lobby is free and open to the public through Brooklyn Bridge Park, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays 2-6pm, and Sundays 12-3pm. Audiences of The Jungle can also experience When Does a Place Become Home? after each performance. The exhibition is closed on Thursdays and Saturday afternoons.

The Jungle, a Good Chance Theatre co-production with the National Theatre and the Young Vic, is a vital remembrance of the now bulldozed camp in Calais, France known as the Jungle, where thousands of refugees who had escaped drought, war, and strife-torn countries in Africa and the Middle East waited for their "good chance" passage to Britain. With minimal resources in the squalid, sprawling landfill-turned-makeshift-camp, immigrants and committed volunteers built a warm, self-governing, diverse society-with restaurants, shops, schools, churches-from nothing. The Jungle was written by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson (who brought a geodesic dome tent they called the Good Chance Theatre to the camp) andishelmed by celebrated director Stephen Daldry (The Crown, The Hours, Billy Elliot) and Justin Martin.

The play brings the audience inside a faithfully replicated restaurant with the hope that this short-lived society will be remembered in all its complexity. The cast is made up of actors from around the world, many of whom come from refugee backgrounds, including the Calais Jungle, and now reside in the UK. Miriam Buether's immersive set, which won the 2018 Evening Standard Design Award, makes full use of the St. Ann's extraordinary flexibility, inviting audiences into an Afghani café, made of plywood tables, ill matching chairs and benches, and a patchwork roof. Here, everyday details unfold: endless cycles of survival and threat, failed social contracts, creative thought and action, compassion and empathy.

Performance Schedule and Tickets

St. Ann's Warehouse presents The Jungle through January 27, 2019. For a complete schedule of performances, please visit The Jungle page of the St. Ann's Warehouse website, and click the Buy Tickets button on the right side of the page. The Jungle is sold out, but some tickets are being released on a daily basis.

Tickets start at $36, and are available now at stannswarehouse.org, 718.254.8779, and 866.811.4111.

St. Ann's Warehouse is located in Brooklyn Bridge Park at 45 Water Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201.



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