The Workers Arts and Heritage Centre (WAHC) and SAVAC present They Built for Eternity*, a group exhibition that shares the stories of migrant construction workers and laments the human cost of labour in the global economy.
Borrowed from a 2014 poster by Maryam Monolisa Gharavi for Gulf Labor Coalition (US), the exhibition title – They Built for Eternity – alludes to both the false longevity of grand construction projects and the ways that manual labourers are slowly worked to the ground. Through print work, performance, audio, film and installation, the exhibition highlights critiques of global building projects against the backdrop of Hamilton’s rich history of labour activism.
This exhibition places a spotlight on the internal and international migration of construction workers across South Asia and the Gulf. The exhibition opens with facts, with raw visualizations of data by Who Builds Your Architecture? (USA/UK) and the Gulf Labor Coalition (US) that ask hard questions about the ethics of building large global (arts) institutions. Through recorded stories, the installed work of artist collective Behind Tin Sheets (India) documents how migrant workers themselves visualize the impact of the construction industry on their own destinies. In a commissioned work, researcher Yasser Arafat (India) delves into the affective and emotional resonances of labour migration on both the workers and their families through Dubaipathu, a genre of music that emerged in the 1970s from the migrant flows between Kerala and Dubai. Through a durational performance, artist Bojana Videkanic (Canada) investigates the workings of Export Processing Zones (industrial zones in Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa), sites where imported materials undergo processing by a precarious migrant workforce.
The global movement of migrant labour in service of capital has been shaped by waves of imperialism, colonialism, and capitalism. It is no surprise that the Canadian state and its corporations – marshalling slavery, indentureship, and forced labour – routinely use workers from elsewhere to build and sustain its own material foundations. Against this backdrop, we are compelled to reckon with the urgency for global labour justice. They built for eternity is a reminder to listen to the inconvenient truths behind contemporary extraction and development projects, both here and abroad.
*This exhibition was originally conceptualized by SAVAC’s former Artistic Director Nahed Mansour in 2017. Current WAHC and SAVAC staff developed the original concept and artist list to shape the exhibition.
Ancillary programs for They Built for Eternity includes two screenings, a residency and two themed PA Day Camps for children. Please check our website and social media for more information about these offerings.
For more information, contact:
Tara Bursey, Program and Exhibitions Specialist at tara@wahc-museum.ca or (905) 522-3003 ex. 29
The Workers Arts & Heritage Centre is a fully accessible building.
WAHC acknowledges the Canada Council for the Arts for its support of the Main Gallery exhibition program, as well as the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Hamilton and the Province of Ontario for its on-going support.
