Le Valigie Digitali - Digital Siutcases
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In European societies, migrants are often attributed “pre-packaged” identities produced by a blend of public discourse, mainstream media and common misconceptions. These simplified identities are based on prejudices that take into account neither the wide-ranging and complex existential and migratory trajectories of individuals nor the fluid and creative side of every inter-subjective relationship.
The project Digital Suitcases seeks to question these stereotypical identities in order to reconstruct, in a participatory way, through research and artistic work, the complex and multifaceted identities by which migrants can recognize themselves and tell their own stories. The project focuses on the experiential “baggage,” both tangible and intangible, that migrants carry with them. Woven into the project, in fact, is what we call “digital suitcases”: SIM cards, which are often the only thing migrants bring with them on their journey, and materials migrants upload on their social networks' accounts. SIM cards and their contents provide migrants with the means to remember their past, realize their ambitions and manage their daily lives. The project draws upon the digital suitcases of asylum seekers and refugees in Italy who have collaborated in a work team with two artists and an anthropologist in shaping their own stories and offering a fresh perspective. “Digital suitcases” is composed both of original materials and of visual and audio materials elaborated starting from videos, audios and images coming from the SIM cards of those who participated in the project. The recordings of some of the conversations occurred during the research phase of this work are another source utilized in the creative process. 
Kate and Ernest
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Alì
Mohammed
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Saturday
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