Space of Refuge

About

’Space of Refuge’ is a spatial installation which has emerged out of extensive fieldwork research by Samar Maqusi, a PhD by Architectural Design student within the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL.The research investigates the spatial production and evolution of Palestinian refugee camps since the 1940s, situating this within a documented history of practices of different host countries and the precarious geo-political situation in the Middle East. Further, the installation examines how different policies in different host countries affect the architecture of the refugee camps, turning them into intensive forms of socio-political co-existence. It also highlights the question of what becomes of these urban spaces when they are left unresolved over a protracted period of time.

In conjunction to the installation, a Symposium will take place on 15 March 2017, at P21 gallery in Somers Town, which will gather scholars from UCL and beyond working on refugee studies (including Prof Murray Fraser-Bartlett Architecture, Dr Camillo Boano-Bartlett DPU, Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, UCL-Geography).The Symposium will situate the issue of Palestinian refugees as a precursor of urgent matters of ‘refuge’ on a wider scale around the world.The latter will include discussions of conflict, resolution, protracted refugee status, host country policies, relationships between refugees and host countries, spatial production within refugee camps, socio-economic behaviour, cultural practices, and such like.

About the Artist

To learn more about Samar’s research, please sea her latest contribution to MoMA’s Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter