Through January 22, 2017, MoMA is presenting “Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter,” a show that analyzes our current geopolitical qualms around the refugee crisis through a design and architectural lens, addressing its underlying symptomatic issues of entrapment in the short-lived—a portion of humanity in constant movement and escape.
More specifically, the exhibition explores the ways in which contemporary architecture and design have addressed notions of shelter in light of global refugee emergencies. From the strengthening of international borders to the logistics of mobile housing systems, how we understand shelter is ultimately defined through an engagement with security.
Refugee camps, once considered temporary settlements, have become sites through which to examine how human rights intersect with the making of cities. Bringing together projects by architects, designers, and artists, working in a range of mediums and scales, that respond to the complex circumstances brought about by forced displacement, the exhibition focuses on conditions that disrupt conventional images of the built environment.
This exhibition is part of Citizens and Borders, a series of discrete projects at MoMA related to works in the collection offering a critical perspective on histories of migration, territory, and displacement.
