Thomas Kilpper

Since 2008 Berlin based artist Thomas Kilpper is developing the project A Lighthouse for Lampedusa!.

The idea is to build a real lighthouse on Italy´s most southern island Lampedusa. It shall give orientation for African boat-people and refugees on the sea and be simultaneously a symbolic and widely visible “welcome” sign. The ground floor of the lighthouse-building shall be a cultural center for the people of Lampedusa. A place for exchange and mutual learning. A Lighthouse for Lampedusa! is an ongoing project and we see here just a model. It still is the aim to set it up in full-size in Lampedusa itself. So far it has been shown in exhibitions across Europe (including Naples, Florence, Reggio Emilia, Rotterdam, Poznan, Berlin, Venice, Lucerne, Zurich and Mechelen). The current refugee crisis in Europe is a humanitarian disaster. Nationalism is at the rise. Europe has an Iron Curtain back again – while hundreds drown in the Mediterranean. A Lighthouse for Lampedusa! calls for international solidarity and a fundamental change in European politics: to implement human rights and the freedom of movement for all, now!

This installation displays mainly images from Lampedusa by Thomas Kilpper

African friends and Turin-based artist Massimo Ricciardo took the black & white shots in a collective session. The African friends were seeking asylum in Lampedusa in 2014.

This project was made possible with help of Studio DAZ Architects, Naples, Giuseppe Nicotra & staff of SIENICO s.r.l., construction enterprise, Catania, Massimo Ricciardo, Turin, Anton Matzke, Anet Jünger and Ludwig Menzel, Berlin, Goethe Institute Bruxelles and Kunsthaus Dresden

Exhibition from 17th of July – 4th of September 2016