Christoph Büchel's Barca Nostra: Migrant Shipwreck as Monument at Venice Biennale

At the 58th Venice Biennale, Swiss artist Christoph Büchel installed 'Barca Nostra', the actual fishing trawler that sank on April 18, 2015 in the Mediterranean, killing an estimated 700 to 1,000 migrants. The wreck was recovered in 2017 at a cost of €9.5 million and stored at the NATO pier in Melilli, Sicily. Büchel transformed it into a ready-made monument displayed at the Arsenale, curated by Ralph Rugoff. The project was realized with the Sicilian Regional Department of Cultural Heritage, the Municipality of Augusta, and the '18 April 2015' Committee. Key facilitator was the late Sebastiano Tusa, Sicily's Councillor for Cultural Heritage, who died in the March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash. After the Biennale, the boat will return to Augusta to be placed in a memorial garden. The work sparked debate on ethics and aesthetics, confronting viewers with the raw reality of migration without mediation.