Tumpukan kesaksian personal para migran kontemporer di atas wahana yang membawa mereka menuju suaka, bersilang sengkarut dengan kesaksian-kesaksian migran di awal abad ke-20 dan arsip-arsip perpindahan. Exquisite corpse ini bekerja sebagai navigasi persoalan kompleks geopolitik kontemporer yang mewarisi struktur kekerasan lama yang tak kunjung diselesaikan.

Layers of personal testimonies from contemporary migrants aboard vessels carrying them toward asylum become intricately entangled with the testimonies of early twentieth-century migrants and archives of displacement. This exquisite corpse serves as a means of navigating the complexities of contemporary geopolitics, which continue to inherit structures of violence from the past that have never been resolved.

Laurent Van Lancker adalah seorang pembuat film, antropolog, dan dosen asal Belgia. Ia menempuh studi di bidang Film dan Antropologi serta meraih gelar Doktor dalam Seni Audiovisual. Saat ini ia menjabat sebagai Profesor Antropologi Audiovisual di Universitas Aix-Marseille, tempat ia mendirikan kelompok riset ANFAA yang berfokus pada “Bentuk-bentuk Etnografi Naratif Alternatif.” Ia juga merupakan salah satu pendiri laboratorium proyek SIC–SoundImageCulture dan BAAB – Beyond Audiovisual Anthropological Borders. Laurent telah membuat enam belas film — mulai dari film eksperimental, dokumenter, hingga fiksi — dan telah meraih sembilan penghargaan. Karya-karya dokumenter awalnya mengeksplorasi tema-tema sosial dan keagamaan, yang kemudian dilanjutkan dengan serangkaian film pendek berjudul “Experimental Ethnographies.” Baru-baru ini, ia telah menyutradarai tiga film panjang yang mengangkat tema migrasi. Karya-karyanya memadukan berbagai pendekatan, seperti sinema kolaboratif, hibrida, dan sensorik, yang menghadirkan dialog antara etika dan estetika, serta antara puisi dan politik.

Laurent Van Lancker is a Belgian filmmaker, anthropologist and lecturer. He studied both Film and Anthropology and holds a PhD in Audio-Visual Arts. He is Professor of Audio-Visual Anthropology at Aix-Marseille University, where he founded the research group ANFAA on “Alternative Narrative Ethnographic Forms.” He is also a co-founder of the SIC– SoundImageCulture and BAAB – Beyond Audiovisual Anthropological Borders – project laboratories. Laurent has made sixteen films — spanning experimental, documentary, and fiction — and has received nine awards. His early documentary works explored social and religious themes, followed by a series of shorts titled “Experimental Ethnographies.” More recently, he has directed three feature-length films on the theme of migration. His works blend various approaches, such as collaborative, hybrid, and sensory cinema, offering a dialogue between ethics and aesthetics, as well as between poetics and politics.