ISO 6346: ineluctable immigrant
About the Project:
Installation and Programs
ISO 6346: ineluctable immigrant focuses on the current crisis of migration and the forces of global capitalism by considering connections between past and contemporary issues of migration. The exhibition draws from research Rothenberg pursued in Berlin at Germany’s largest refugee camp, currently housed in the monumental Tempelhof airport, a disused site that was originally designed and built by the Nazis. The exhibition also includes objects and documents, such as passports, birth certificates, comics, and photographs—that represent earlier Jewish immigration and movement—that Rothenberg uncovered in the collections of the Spertus Institute in Chicago.
Rothenberg has titled the installation ISO 6346 after the international standard for identification and marking of shipping containers, such as those being used to house refugees at the Tempelhof airport refugee camp. The word “ineluctable” in the exhibition title (meaning: inescapable, unavoidable) was first used in print in 1623, notably at the same time as the words “immigrate” and “migration.”
EXHIBITION HISTORY
ISO 6346: ineluctable immigrant was presented in a solo exhibition in 2019 at the James Gallery in NYC, curated by Katherine Carl, curator and Deputy Director for The Center for Humanities at the Graduate Center at CUNY.
The installation was commissioned by the Spertus Institute in Chicago in 2018 for a solo exhibition curated by Ionit Behar with additional support from the Goethe Institute, the Illinois Arts Council, and the Poetry Foundation.
Related Programs
Cecilia Vicuña
Language is migrant…
A performance on migration and movement by Cecilia Vicuña, Chilean artist, writer, and activist.
Spertus Institute, Chicago, 2018
Photos by Grace DuVal
Video by Julia Pello
Nathanaël
Judd Morrissey & Jennfer Scappattone
Writer and translator Nathanäel, reading from Feder, and a performance by artist and translator Jennifer Scappettone with code artist Judd Morrissey.
The Poetry Foundation, Chicago, 2018
Photos by Grace DuVal
RELATED MATERIALS
Publications:
James Gallery Exhibition Guide | PDF↓
Spertus Institute Exhibition Guide | PDF↓
Reviews:
ARTFORUM | PDF↓
Newcity: Art Top 5, April 2018
Newcity: Enigmatic Propositions…
THE SEEN
Chicago Reader