ARTISTS TALKING

As part of a global network, ports are places of constant flux, facilitating the movement of goods, people and information. Central to this exhibition is the notion of the port city as a “symbolic site of cultural exchange”. While this doesn’t sound especially compelling, the content of the show certainly is. Work by over twenty artists is included, dealing with themes of global migration, international trade and slavery, making it one of the most ambitious projects Arnolfini has staged in a long while.

The ground floor gallery is given over entirely to Ursula Biemann, whose large installation of TV monitors and projections, The Sahara Chronicles, bombards the viewer with a hubbub of sounds and images. Through her own films and appropriated imagery, Biemann’s revealing work investigates contemporary migration routes in the Maghreb region. Migration is heavily restricted here and her films document the plight of African migrants attempting to reach Europe in the hope of finding work. One genuinely moving film shows a Moroccan prison for captured African migrants. The detainees describe their perilous journeys in the desert as they strive to escape a life of poverty. Biemann’s skilful balancing of documentary with a poetic sensibility makes this one of ‘Port City’s’ strongest inclusions.

Upstairs, the crowd-pleasing centrepiece of the show, Meschac Gaba’s Sweetness, is an enormous model city made entirely of sugar. This mythical port city features miniature versions of some of the world’s most famous buildings, including the Eiffel Tower and Sydney Opera House as well as several Bristol landmarks. It’s as if Gaba has created a sculptural visualisation of the term ‘global village’. Sugar production was an integral part of the transatlantic slave trade and thoughts of Bristol’s involvement spring quickly to mind, especially in this, the 200-year anniversary of its abolition. The scale of Gaba’s city is impressive if let down slightly by the crude appearance of some of the models, but there is still amusement to be had trying to spot how many can be recognised.

To view Erik van Lieshout’s video piece you have to crouch down and enter into a large, makeshift cardboard construction resembling a giant box of pills. Lariam documents the artist’s time in Ghana, apparently tracing the roots of hip hop. He creates a rap song about the anti-malaria drug Lariam, which is too expensive for the locals. Although watching Lieshout teach his rap to enthusiastic youngsters raises a smile, the lighthearted approach makes it unclear whether overpriced pharmaceuticals in Africa is of real concern to him or not.

Global trade is tackled in Melanie Jackson’s installation, The Undesirables, which takes the wrecking of the MSC Napoli container ship at Branscombe, and subsequent looting, as its starting point. Jackson has constructed intricate paper tableaux based on news reports of the incident. Her diorama includes the half-submerged ship, the beach littered with containers and numerous scavengers carting off all kinds of plunder, from shoes and face cream to car parts and motorbikes. The sheer labour involved in creating the work is remarkable and aesthetically it is a very absorbing piece, but without any obvious critical stance it fails to move beyond elaborate illustration.

While much of the work in ‘Port City’ is highly politicised, it remains decidedly non-judgemental, encouraging viewers to decide upon their own ethical responses. Although this has come to be expected of contemporary art, it’s a shame that, especially given some of the issues here, many artists still refuse to make their convictions more apparent. However, what could have been a rather pedestrian and academic curatorial exercise has actually proven to be a thoroughly engaging, gratifying exhibition.