Just Arrived: Here, There, Over there

The project frames migration as an experience of 'otherness' beyond borders. Through the act of looking, it invites an asymmetric witnessing, tracing the solitary journey of an individual detaching from the collective to become singular.

“Just Arrived: Here, There, Over There” is not merely a story of arrival; it is a visual and theoretical documentation of a perpetual state of “being on the threshold.” Emerging from the artist’s multi-layered research process spanning from Corsica to Istanbul, this project reconfigures migration as an experience of “otherness” that can be felt anywhere and at any time, moving beyond mere geographical displacement. Rooted in the feelings of proximity and distance that arise from the relationships one forms—or fails to form—the narrative asserts that belonging is not a physical coordinate but a fluid experience.

The project establishes a structure that makes the process palpable, acknowledging that a two-month stay on an island is a brief span to fully grasp the profound depth of a subject like migration. The pervasive experience of entering, exiting, and existing on an island is defined by the sea. This landscape is something we encounter as we arrive, look upon as we move around the island, and pass through as we depart. While the sea signifies freedom and openness for a migrant, it serves as a natural boundary and an enclosed structure for a local. Just as with everything else, the meaning of the sea shifts depending on one’s vantage point and experience. Arriving as a collective mass on a ship, those referred to by the residents as “they” begin to write their own unique stories from the moment they arrive.

The metaphor of the “stone in the river,” which depicts this process of individualization, serves as the theoretical backbone of the project. Just as a stone breaks away from its source and journeys toward the sea, the individual thins, erodes, and changes form within this flow. This journey is not a passive drifting in harmony with the current; it is an aesthetics of erosion—at times moving against the current, at others through chance—that always detaches the individual from the “whole” and brings them to their own unique subjectivity. In the mandarin orchards where paths cross, these individuals, who arrived with a shared dream, embark on distinct journeys and construct their own singular narratives.

This narrative is embodied through the visual and material contrasts within the works. While the clear sky above figures sharing typological similarities heralds a common human roof, the systematic, grid-like arrangement of the photographs reduces the individual to an anonymized “archival record.” The gaps intentionally placed between the images open up space for untold stories and "missing" bodies to be completed by the viewer’s gaze. There is no difference between the mundane walk from one tree to another in the orchard and the journey from one town to another on the island. The ordinariness of walking, combined with the act of looking, creates a shared meaning that unites us within seconds.

Contrary to divisive discourse, the project asserts the existence of a common living space where the gaze converges, where anyone can feel like an “other” at some point, and where the same landscape can be viewed through diverse dreams. It invites the viewer not to look from a fixed point, but to move, to share the gaze, and to re-examine their own thresholds of belonging within this asymmetric witnessing.