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British artist Lucy Wood arrives in Amsterdam coming from Lampedusa in her migrant boat. Her final destination is London.

On Thursday 26 September British artist Lucy Wood is expected to arrive in Amsterdam on her way from Lampedusa to London in her seized migrant boat. Around 14.00 Ms. Wood and her boat TO6411 are expected to moor at the quay (Veemkade) opposite the Lloyd Hotel.

Following year-long negotiations with the Italian Government, British artist, Lucy Wood, has been granted ownership of a confiscated migrant fishing boat used to traffic Libyans to Lampedusa during the 2011 conflict. Offically Italian customs registered as TO6411, Lucy Wood’s boat will be single-handedly sailed by the artist from the Italian island of Lampedusa to London during June-October 2013.

En-route, Lucy Wood will be documenting her journey, raising awareness and highlighting the perils of people-trafficking from Africa. Her solo voyage will be a floating installation piece that mirrors the journey of fleeing migrants. The boat will act as the visual aid of individual migrant experience and will also be used to host events in relation to migration.

The intended route will include stops in Sicily, Naples, Rome, Genoa, Monaco, Marseille, Arles, Avignon, Brussels and Amsterdam, before sailing up the Thames to London.

The boat will be displaying many items left by migrants on this and other similar boats. Lucy has collected and stored such items during her visits to Lampedusa to create an anthropological survey, and further illustrate the story of migration.

To show people what it really is like on these boats, Wood is keeping the vessel in as original condition as possible and will travel and live alongside collected objects/possessions left by its migrant cargo. Wood intends to keep all evidence of her own journey, including food and drink packaging and all her equipment for exhibiting purposes, so visitors can compare such items with what was the original 36 people on board bought with them on TO6411.

During 2012, the boat is upgraded to meet EU safety regulations, which include navigation equipment, flares, lifejackets and a liferaft. This all in sharp contrast to the migrants boats, which carry no such safety equipment.

TO6411 was originally used to ferry 36 passengers, including three children and a pregnant woman, when it and its human cargo were rescued off the coast of Lampedusa.

‘I am hoping that this project will raise awareness and give its audience a fresh perspective on migration issues through evidence gathering’, says Wood. ‘Over 50,000 lives were saved by the search and rescue services in Lampedusa last year, as the majority of the boats sent out distress calls.’

Wood is also writing a blog en-route – ‘The Chronicles of Lampedusa’ – covering her everyday experiences of the journey.

More on the trip: The Artnewspaper

Source: Upstream Gallery Amsterdam

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