State of Exception

A roundtable discussion held here on campus about the State of Exception exhibit at MOCAD with Jason De Leon, Richard Barnes, Amanda Krugliak, and others.

Originally exhibited at the Institute for the Humanities gallery, State of Exception presents traces of the human experience - backpacks, water bottles, border patrol restraints, and other objects left behind in the desert by undocumented migrants on their journey into the U.S. This in combination with video shot by Richard Barnes on location along the U.S./Mexico border comprises State of Exception, the first major curation of the work of U-M anthropologist Jason De Leon’s Undocumented Migration project. This collaboration between artist/photographer Richard Barnes, Jason De Leon, and curator Amanda Krugliak considers the complexity and ambiguity of the found objects and what they may or may not reveal in terms of transition, human experience, culture, violence, and accountability.