Venice: A boat carrying migrants which capsized in the Mediterranean Sea in 2015 killing over 1,100 people, will be on display here as part of this year’s edition of the annual Venice Biennale art exhibition, the media reported on Tuesday.
The rusted, pitted body of the 90 feet fishing boat was brought ashore at Venice’s ancient Arsenale, one of the venues for the Biennale, in a project masterminded by Swiss-Icelandic artist Christoph Buchel, reports the Guardian.
The boat capsized on the night of April 18, 2015 between Libya and the Italian island of Lampedusa, after it collided with a vessel that had responded to its distress call.
There were only 28 survivors. The people on board were mostly trapped in the hold.
In 2016, the boat had been recovered by the Italian government and taken to the Sicilian naval base of Melilli, where the bodies trapped in the boat’s hull were removed and identified.
It’s Tunisian captain, Mohammed Ali Malek, was later found guilty of manslaughter.
It remains to be seen what effect the boat will have on visitors to the Biennale, the art world’s most prominent international gathering that opens to the public on Saturday.
Curator Maria Chiara di Trapani said the physical presence of the boat could help visitors “feel respect for it and look at it in silence – just keep two minutes of silence to listen and reflect”.
