Interview with CAMP (Center for Art and Migration Politics)

CAMP (Center for Art and Migration Politics) is a small exhibition space focusing on and working with migration and asylum politics. It is located in The Trampoline House, a culture house in Copenhagens Nordvest-neighborhood, where people seeking asylum, refugees, Danes and other people meet and work together. CAMP has had a number of exhibitions, which have focused on different aspects of the fundamental problematic of the exhibition space: asylum and migration politics.

In the Spring 2017, CAMP showed the exhibition We shout and shout, but no one listens: Art from conflict zones, an exhibition focused on one of the elements, that create the necessity of fleeing: war and violent conflict. The exhibition included a number of art works from different artists, debates, and the publishing of a catalogue, which besides presentations of the artists and their pieces also included a significant essay by Judith Butler, asking what makes some lives more grievable than others.

Public Square’s Jeppe Wedel-Brandt visited CAMP on March 29, and interviewed curator Frederikke Hansen and “Nabintu,” one of CAMP’s volunteer guides. “Nabintu” wished to remain anonymus, which we accepted without further questions as to why. We know there can be many reasons to need anonymity in such a situation: fear of consequences in the Danish system, or consequences in the country from which you have fled; a general uneasiness with appearing in public in a precarious situation, etc. His reasons are his own. For Public Square it is important that questions of papers, states, and systems do not decide who has their voice heard – therefore we accepted the wish for anonymity and offered a viewing of the video before publishing. This means that some of the camera ankles are untraditional, but we feel that is a price worth paying.