Following the Fish

In: Cultural politics: an international journal ; exploring cultural and political power across the globe, Band 20, Heft 1, S. 136-154

Abstract

Abstract
This visual essay explores the Catalan exhibition Following the Fish/Toppi jën wi at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2023). The exhibition concentrates on the various geopolitical, economic, and historical forces that have driven many sub-Saharan migrants to flee their homes for the EU, placing them in complexly perilous sites of socio-legal-economic and cultural conditions, ones fraught with danger but also operating in hope with many lessons for EU cities and their civic, public spheres. The exhibition is a collaboration between the Barcelona architectural collective Leve and the organization Top Manta, a Barcelona collective and fashion design manufacturer that creates communal and legal opportunities for migrants who sell their wares on blankets in public squares.