A contemporary artwork (by a 19-year-old artist) dedicated to migrants was set on fire in France

Unpleasant and horrendous episode of intolerance in Poitiers (in the Poitou region of central France), where a contemporary artwork dedicated to migrants was set on fire and seriously damaged. The installation is titled SOS - Save our souls, and is the work of the Greek-British artist, just 19 years old and living in the United States, Achilleas Souras (London, 2000): it is an igloo-shelter about five meters high made from life jackets worn by migrants in the Aegean crossings and abandoned on the island of Lesbos, the first landing in Europe for many of those leaving behind wars and terrorism in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq. The work is reminiscent of Mario Merz’s igloos but is linked to current migration tragedies, of which it seeks to become a symbol.

The installation was conceived in 2017, when Souras was only 16 years old, and has since toured the world: on the occasion of World Refugee Day 2017, it had also been exhibited at MAXXI in Rome, and in Italy it was also presented at the Salone del Mobile in Milan, also in 2017. In Poitiers, the work had been displayed as part of the Traversées Poitiers exhibition, running in the French city from October 12, 2019 to January 19, 2020 (Souras’ work had been on view since the beginning of the exhibition). The fire broke out around the night of December 21-22 (probably very early in the morning of December 22), and there would be no doubt about its arson origin, although the perpetrators of the dastardly act are unknown at the moment. Poitiers police have now opened an investigation to determine the circumstances of this act.

"It is one of the flagship works of Traversées, and it was deliberately set on fire on the night of Saturday, December 21 to Sunday, December 22," said Poitiers Mayor Alain Claeys. “Besides sadness, I feel incomprehension. A work of art is the free expression of a creator. It does not have the ambition to change the world, nor to solve problems: it is a point of view, subjective, sensitive, that can make us question our society. If the artist is free in his creative act, the viewer is equally free to think what he wants. So it is healthy for a work of art to arouse emotions, opinions and reactions. But to destroy a work of art is to prevent and suppress all possibilities for reflection, exchange and debate.”

“My thoughts,” the first citizen added, “go out to the artist, to the inhabitants of Poitiers, and to all citizens who are, I know for a fact, outraged. Poitiers is everything the opposite of this hateful and scandalous act: a city for discussion and openness.” Now a decision will have to be made about what to do with the work, but from early reports it appears that the artist has decided to leave it displayed as is, damaged, until the end of the exhibition: only an explanatory panel will be added to explain why it is in such a state.

Pictured: SOS - Save our souls by Achilleas Souras after the fire.

A contemporary artwork (by a 19-year-old artist) dedicated to migrants was set on fire in France

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