The Refugee Crisis in Contemporary European Film Curatorial Practices

The refugee crisis, often framed as a European discourse shaping cultural perceptions and narratives, requires exploration beyond traditional representational frameworks. This dissertation examines how European curatorial practices construct and engage with the crisis, focusing on the dynamics of this narrative rather than the lived experiences of refugees themselves. By engaging with both representational and non-representational theories, the research seeks to understand the mechanisms shaping the crisis narrative, moving beyond a fixed or static portrayal of the crisis.

Adopting a multidisciplinary approach—drawing on film studies, spatial analysis of film festivals and art galleries, post-colonial theory, and cultural geography—this dissertation dissects how the refugee crisis is portrayed across various media. Relational aesthetics, serving as both an art theory and a theoretical bridge, connects these disciplines and provides a framework for examining the interactions between curatorial spaces, including film festivals and art galleries, both onsite and online. This approach highlights how European curatorial practices collectively engage in shaping and mediating the refugee crisis narrative.

Through case studies of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival London Digital Edition (2020), Leeds International Film Festival (2019), The Tetley Contemporary Art Gallery (2019), and the Istanbul Contemporary Art Biennial (2019), this dissertation explores how films within these curatorial contexts address the visibility of refugees, articulate the crisis, and reflect on Europeanness. These case studies offer insights into the relational dynamics of different curatorial spaces, contributing to a broader understanding of how the refugee crisis is framed within European contexts.

The research argues that films within these spaces act as relational tools, whose fluidity is shaped by the socio-political, spatial, and aesthetic concerns of the curatorial framework in which they are displayed. This fluidity is not solely defined by the installation but also by the film's process of becoming and its intertextual relationship with other curated elements. The study reveals that the articulation of the refugee crisis extends beyond the curators' intentions, involving all intertextual components within these European spaces. Ultimately, this dissertation demonstrates that the relationship between curatorial practices and the refugee crisis is defined not by individual films or exhibitions, but by the curatorial contexts' engagement with the idea of Europe.