Vik Muniz will unveil his new installation, a wooden boat covered in news clippings, at the Venice Biennale early next month.
Brazilian-born artist Vik Muniz has built a 45-foot-long boat covered in fragments of news articles in order to raise awareness about the hundreds of migrants who have died while trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe.
Twitter / Via Twitter: @VikMuniz
Muniz came up with the idea for the massive art piece in late November, after Italy decided to phase out a huge search-and-rescue operation for migrants crossing the Mediterranean and the European Union chose not to fully replace it. His art installation, which launches early next month in Venice, Italy, follows a string of deadly accidents at sea in recent weeks.
"I thought, 'they're cooling their efforts to rescue migrants in the Mediterranean', so I want to remind people of the tragedies that happened and that could happen again," Muniz told BuzzFeed News, referring to the European Union's response to the crisis.
The boat will be shown at the Venice Biennale, one of the world's most famous art events, which starts in early May. Here's a mock-up of what it will look like when Muniz launches it on May 5.
Courtesy of Vik Muniz
The installation is a custom-made wooden boat, shaped like a classic folded paper boat, that has been covered in fragments of migrant shipwreck news coverage. The boat has been named Lampedusa, after the southern Italian island where many migrants land.
The boat will appear in various locations around Venice until September, often docked alongside the city's playboy yachts. Italy is the most popular landing point for the migrants crossing the Mediterranean because of its proximity to north Africa.
