Murmuration

The writing of this project is the fruit of four research and creation trips I did between 2017 and 2022 in Sicily, to Pozzallo, Modica and Catania. My encounters with cultural mediators from Senegal, Guinea and Eritrea helped me gain a better understanding of the issues surrounding youth immigration. They introduced me to under-age migrants with whom I forged a strong bond. They were generous enough to tell me their stories. Their accounts of before, now and tomorrow. The murmuration narrative emanated from these touching stories of buried memories and dreams. Collected, layered, interwoven to form the character of Kanope. We conducted discussion workshops with young migrants where the first virtual reality prototypes were presented. Their feedback greatly enriched the project. Later in 2021 and 2022, four of them took part in the voice recordings in a music studio in Catania. The fantastic creative team behind murmuration is a diverse group of men and women with very different immigration backgrounds. Most notable is our character designer, Kenolisa Oramasionwu, who sculpted Kanope. Kenolisa is a young bright and charismatic Nigerian artist, currently in Lagos after studying in the US. The motion-captured choreography in the dance scene is the creation of dancer-choreographer Joël Ndagi, of Rwandan origin. Joël also carries a complex personal migration story. It is devastating to me to see this human tragedy being trivialized, solidarity being criminalized and intolerance being fueled by rising hatred. murmuration is a message of tolerance and a tool for dialogue. A moment to welcome and reach out to others, a moment not to be indifferent. The stories of those who risk everything to undertake the perilous crossing of the central Mediterranean, under our eyes, testify to our collective loss of humanity. These stories need to be shared. The tragedy of deaths at sea needs to stop.. After the first demolition of Calais, the author Sébastien Thiéry wrote: “To consider – is to ask that things be said with justice and that they be treated with justice.” murmuration is a call for kindness and attention, a space for reaching out, listening and understanding, far away from the desensitizing, numbing looping spectacle of violent
images we are served in our feeds.