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1 November 2024

18:00 to 20:00

Counter Mapping Migration

Anna Sejbæk Torp-Pedersen will present her research on artistic maps of migration. The research is an outcome of her PhD project 'Counter-Mapping Migration: Cartographic Histories of People on the Move.’ In this talk, she will present several case-studies to ask; "what does a counter-map of migration do?” The audiences are invited to think with her and ask questions.

To contextualise the research, flows of illegalised border crossings are currently visualised with maps by Western governments. The maps render people on the move as invaders which shapes public discourse and justifies harsh migration policies. Cartography is, in this instance, used to support a repressive power that deprives people of fundamental rights and citizenship. Simultaneously, several artists have created maps which interrupt hegemonic cartography’s iconography and representation of people on the move; it is an emergent field of artistic counter-cartographies. By presenting migrant journeys with the tool that shaped nations and notions of citizenship, any map of people on the move participates in the ongoing negotiation of access to fundamental rights, citizenship, and/or legal protection. 

Anna Sejbæk Torp-Pedersen is an FWO funded PhD-student in the Art History Research Unit at KU Leuven, and a junior fellow at the Lieven Gevaert Centre (KU Leuven – UCLouvain). Sejbæk Torp-Pedersen holds a BA from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and an MA from Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. She has previously held positions at The National Gallery of Denmark, The Research Center for Material Culture, Kunstinstituut Melly, and Kunstlicht, Journal for Visual Culture, among others.

Photo: Bouchra Khalili, The Mapping Journey Project, 2008-2011. Installation view, Stranieri Ovunque — Foreigners Everywhere, 60th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia, 2024. Photo: Marco Zorzanello. Courtesy of the artist and la Biennale di Venezia.

This event received funding from the Nordic Culture Point.