Bouchra Khalili

Louisiana Poster with the work A Constellation of Maps and Circles by the Moroccan-French artist Bouchra Khalili, published in connection with the exhibition with the artist (2025).

The piece around which the exhibition is structured is The Mapping Journey Project, 2008-2011, a large-scale video installation, where eight individuals recount their forced illegal journeys. As they narrate their tortuous and often year-long journeys, each person traces their individual travel route on a map.

As they narrate their tortuous and often year-long journeys, each person traces their individual travel route on a map. The journeys are driven by both political and economic circumstances and span from North and East Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, across the Mediterranean, West Africa and Europe’s borders. These singular itineraries emphasize the persistence of the human being in search for a better shared future.

The exhibition is presented in the museum’s Hall Gallery and Column Gallery. Circles and the colour blue are key in the scenography. The circles are inspired by the Moroccan tradition of public storytelling and performances called Halaka (‘ring’, ‘circle’ or ‘assembly’ in Arabic), where the audience forms a circle around the performer. Blue is the colour of the sea and sky – spaces that connect us around the globe, spaces without closed borders, spaces in constant flux.