"Echolocation"
Challenges (2025) — Multimedia spatial installation: transparent chiffon flags, medical bandages, wood, and multi-channel audio, approx. 150 × 100 cm.
Echocation is a series of three spatial installations that critically examine the concepts of migration, identity, and displacement:
-
Challenges: A spatial installation featuring suspended, transparent chiffon flags matched to a spectrum of human skin complexions and overlaid with structural bandage patterns. It explores the erosion of cultural identity and the gradual alienation from one's mother tongue.
-
Echolocation: A spatial installation utilizing physical and structural elements to expand upon the themes of navigation, memory, and personal positioning within a new geographical environment.
-
Where Are You From?: A spatial, textile, and font-based installation that materializes the repetitive, often isolating questions faced by migrants, transforming language and typography into a physical, tactile boundary within the gallery space.
"Challenges" is a multimedia installation examining the erosion of cultural identity, memory, and language caused by migration and displacement. Grounded in field research involving correspondence and interviews with individuals from Albania, Hong Kong, Turkey, and World War II survivors, the work focuses on a critical linguistic aspect of migration: the gradual alienation from one's mother tongue.
The physical installation consists of suspended transparent chiffon flags meticulously sourced to match a diverse spectrum of human skin complexions—ranging from deep dark browns to warm ochres, muted beiges, and soft pink hues. Stripped of national or political symbolism, these garments shift the focus from geopolitical borders to an anthropological unity. Superimposed onto the fabric are structural patterns of medical bandages, serving as visual markers of psychological transition and mapping the stages of cultural adaptation where integration coexists with the loss of one's original cultural code.
The work is contextualised by a multi-channel audio installation and an archive of handwritten testimonies. The audio component captures intimate linguistic ruptures, recording individuals navigating their native languages through prolonged pauses. Together with the documents, this archive functions as a record of resilience, documenting the experiences of people positioned between different cultural environments.
"Challenges" 2025| Multimedia installation: transparent chiffon flags, bandage patterns, multi-channel audio installation
This art project draws upon personal accounts from individuals who have undergone both forced displacement and voluntary migration, fostering a more profound understanding of human experiences across diverse historical and social landscapes. By examining the narratives of people from Albania during wartime, the events of World War II, the current situation in Hong Kong, and the motivations driving Turkish and other citizens to migrate, the project highlights the shared challenges faced by migrants and their adaptive strategies in response to novel environments. Grasping these dynamics can be especially valuable for those lacking direct exposure to migration, particularly given the increasing likelihood of widespread population displacements in the future.
Joe Leung
Hong Kong
I, Joe Leung, will never forget July 21, 2019 — the day when, for the first time in Hong Kong's history, a government-orchestrated terrorist attack involving criminal gangs was unleashed against peaceful citizens. This ruthless violence and the government's deceitful attempts to conceal the truth became a symbol of the collapse of Hong Kong's core values and the beginning of its civilizational decline. That harrowing moment forced me to make the most painful decision of my life — to leave my hometown, where I had lived for nearly half a century, and move to the United Kingdom with my family in search of freedom and safety.
Ron Oruci
Albania
I am from Kosovo and I came to England and requested asylum because of the war in Yugoslavia in 1992 and I live in London.In 1990 I was recruited as a tank driver for a compulsory army service we had in Yugoslavia.then war started in Yugoslavia in 1991 army police came to my door to take me for the service to fight the war so I ran to my neighbours balcony and then went to my grandmother spent a few days in hiding then my mum and my uncle took me across the border to Macedonia where I stayed one month and then I got one-way ticket to London where I claimed asylum in 1992 where I live since then.
Astrit
Albania
My movie started when I have just 14 years old in Albania with Kalashnikov… situation almost like in Ukraine right now… ad that time I was on post block all night checking all who is passing…
Robin
England (Robin's mother was a refugee during World War II.)
Some history: when I was little, Mum still had only very basic English so I didn't get much help with reading and writing. I remember other kids reading comics, whereas I would just look at the pictures and imagine the story. So I was behind other English children of my age at school. My father always had very neat and beautiful handwriting and that inspired me to copy. In those days we only had a fountain pen and real ink. That's how I developed a love of handwriting. When I started to learn Cyrillic alphabet in order to learn Ukrainian, I found a natural love of the Cyrillic script. Unfortunately, nowadays, everything is written on a keyboard and my handwriting skills have faded. Some of the love of handwriting must have passed in my genes to my daughter Nastya, as she has beautiful handwriting in Mandarin