Also at the Venice Biennale: the boat in which 700 migrants died in 2015

It is one of the projects that are causing the most discussion at the Venice Biennale: Swiss artist Christoph Büchel (Basel, 1966) brought to the lagoon the barge that sank in the Sicilian Channel on April 18, 2015, taking with it the lives of so many attempting the journey to Italy (between 700 and 900 migrants died in one of the worst maritime massacres of the 2000s). The vessel, a fishing boat later recovered in a complicated and very costly operation (it had sunk to a depth of 350 meters), left Sicily three days ago (it is in fact at a NATO base in Augusta) for Venice and, placed on top of a barge, will be displayed at the Arsenale, set apart from the rest of the exhibition. The president of the Biennale, Paolo Baratta, explained why: “Far from distractions, far from the hubbub, it just invites great silence and reflection.”

The barge was renamed Barca Nostra by Büchel, and was wanted in Venice to stir consciences. The Swiss artist is no stranger to works with strong political overtones: at the 2015 Biennale, for the Iceland Pavilion, he had created a mosque inside a deconsecrated church in Venice’s historic center, Santa Maria della Misericordia (which was later closed by the authorities shortly after opening).

Also at the Venice Biennale: the boat in which 700 migrants died in 2015

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