The Spanish Embassy is pleased to invite you to the opening of the exhibition:
LOW COST DIPLOMATIC BAG
RUNS FROM 17 NOV 2015 – 17 FEB 2016
WHERE: IMMIGRATION MUSEUM, 400 FLINDERS STREET, MELBOURNE
(on the corner of William Street)
The suitcase is a symbol of every migrant, the beginning of the journey, the receptacle where each one of us puts what one considers most essential to bring when moving from one country to another. In a way you are what you put in your suitcase, your suitcase is a part of your identity that travels along with you.
In this exhibition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain asked 15 of its Embassies around the world to work with artists from those countries or who were migrants in those countries.
The artists were asked to use suitcases that fit into the luggage compartment of a low cost airline as exhibition space. Each suitcase was manipulated in whatever way the artist thought suitable and the full set of manipulated or ‘filled’ suitcases comes ready for public display in the gallery.
This is an object-based display in which the suitcase is a continuous element throughout the exhibition.
The first exhibition was first held in Madrid and it will then travel to each of the sixteen countries where the suitcases originated.
The briefcase work I have included in the show is made in collaboration with Mitra Ashtiani, BHR, Neda Daryabar, Alyana Eau, Eghbal, Sririhan Ganeshan, Dagmara Gieysztor, Khadija Haydari, Sakhidad Haydari, Zohreh Izadikia, Mehedi Jaghuri, Carmenza Jimenez, Mahelyeh Kalhour , Azizeh Kh., Honey Kh., Gyorgyi Marek, Samaneh Malekshahi, M. Mayhew, M.S., Noony, Minh Phan, Anthony Rodriguez and Maryam Sepasi.