Traces of Displacement at The Whitworth

This exhibition uses the Whitworth’s collection to address one of the major humanitarian concerns of the 20th and 21st centuries – forced displacement. In tracing displacement within the collection, a partial, fragmentary, and yet compelling set of stories is emerging from academic and community collaboration. Traces of Displacement uncovers stories of persecution, creativity, and resilience, and the experiences of artists and makers who were displaced in their homelands, forced to flee, survived, and even thrived in exile.

Artists from the collection include Raisa Kabir, Tibor Reich, Bashir Makhoul, Otti Berger, Cornelia Parker, Cecily Brown, Ana Maria Pacheco, Frank Auerbach, Max Ernst, Dusan Kusmic, William Holman Hunt, James Mcbey, Francesco Simetti, Frank Brangwyn, Edward Ardizzone, Edward Bawden and Theodore De Bry, Clare Leighton Hope, Ian Rawlinson, and Oskar Kokoschka amongst others.

Tracing Displacement in the Whitworth’s Collection is one outcome of a major AHRC-funded (Arts and Humanities Research Council) research project: Understanding Displacement Aesthetics and Making Change in the Art Gallery with Refugee, Migrant and Host Communities, led by Professor Ana Carden Coyne with Dr Chrisoula Lionis and Dr Angeliki Rousseau.