Page - 77 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Volume 2/2016

Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 2 2o16 Tony Kushner | Lampedusa and the Migrant Crisis 77 to this article.74 On the island this low key but deeply impressive museum superficially comple- ments but also subtly critiques Mimmo Paladino’s Porta di Lampedusa – Porta d’Europa 2008 memorial situated away from the town and close to the airport runway, designed to be seen by those entering the port of Lampedusa by sea. Paladino’s work demands that the door of migra- tion should be kept open, though in terms of scale, its portal is small compared to the large scale monument as a whole, suggesting perhaps a managed, rather than an open border approach. It thus follows more the philosophy of the IOM rather than Askavusa – tellingly a photograph of Paladino’s work frames the former’s analysis of migrant journeys. Porta di Lampedusa – Porta D’Europa is, however, complex. It is deliberately ‘an unfinished work’ and its ceramic coverings weather and crumble to show both the vulnerability of those involved and the dynamics of a situation changing day by day.75 The migrants themselves, in addition to their political interventions, have with their sup- porters created an online archive to document their experiences in passing through Lampedusa utilising private documents such as diaries as well as films and oral history aided by Italian scholar of African migration, Alessandro Triulzi. They have thus helped to ensure that their voices are preserved and their testimony available not simply through the limitations of media, government and non-governmental organisations.76 In this respect, one of the most power- ful forms of migrant self-representation has been produced through this initiative, Zakaria Mohammed Ali’s documentary To Whom It May Concern (2012). Ali, a Somalian journalist and political refugee, was briefly interned at the island’s deten- tion centre in 2008. Four years later he returns a ‘free man’ to Lampedusa with his friend and fellow migrant, Mahamed Aman. His film focuses on the traces of the migrant presence on the island. It emphasises the importance of past lives – family life, educational achievements and professional careers – before the journeys were undertaken as well as the dangers and los- ses (not just death at sea but also status), of those undertaking them. It is thus a memorial to the multi-layered nature of migrant experiences – before, during and after – and how they are affected yet not simply determined by the negativity of immigration procedures. Ultimately To Whom It May Concern is a statement about the importance of memory which Ali defines as ‘the only bridge which connects human beings to their past’. It highlights, through the Lampedusa detention centre, how Western bureaucracies attempt to erase memory through the violence of destroying paperwork (whether family photographs, certificates or diplomas) confirming who the individuals were before they made the journeys across desert and sea. By returning to Lam- pedusa, Zakaria and Mahamed illustrate how they have not been defined by their detention and the desire to render them ‘illegal’.77 If Exodus 1947 was performed both at the time and sub- sequently as an epic narrative, it is already clear that Lampedusa has become a part of a global story, and one which the migrants themselves, in spite of their ongoing marginality, are playing a key role emphasising their common humanity. 74 Tony Kushner, site visit to Porto M and discussion with the Askavusa collective, Lampedusa, 6 August 2015. 75 Tony Kushner, site visit, 5 August 2015; ‘The port of Lampedusa, an unfinished work’, accessed 2 August 2015. 76 Material available through Archivio delle memorie migranti, www.archviomemoriemigranti.net. 77 Zakaria Mohammed Ali, To Whom It May Concern (Archivio Memorie Migranti, 2012).