Displacement

In the context of the international art biennale Manifesta, which took place in Waterschei (B) in 2012, 25 leading Limburg artists were asked to translate their vision on migration into an image, starting from a suitcase.

This object is a reminder of all the emigrants who left their homeland in the last century to come and work in the mines. The suitcase, as it were, bundles all their hopes. When they leave, these expats are filled with expectations, illusions and dreams of the future. But their prospects soon narrow. The realization of emptiness and loss takes its place. Because a lot of warmth was also left behind: a home, family ties, the traditional way of life... Little or nothing remains of the original contents of the suitcase. The lines reinforce the tragedy of this trajectory.

The object also becomes a metaphor for the life journey we all make. What remains at the terminus of the suitcase of expectations with which we once boarded the train of life?