Since the Second World War and the formalisation of the international refugee regime, forced displacement has been marked by a set of aesthetic, practical, and institutional concerns. Understanding Displacement Aesthetics examines how visual culture and art practice constructs and challenges ideas about forced displacement and refugees. The novel framework for ‘displacement aesthetics’ moves beyond conventional understandings of aesthetics as merely representational, demonstrating the entanglement of visual culture, art practices, and forced displacement in postmigrant contexts. Bringing together the fields of cultural history, art history, and curatorial studies, Understanding Displacement Aesthetics identifies four areas for consideration: visual tropes of refugeedom; language and identity; institutional and artistic responses to displacement; and lived experiences of artists with backgrounds of displacement. Through archival research, visual culture and art, interviews, and collaborative curatorship, Understanding Displacement Aesthetics offers new insight into overcoming the limitations that contexts of displacement can present for artists, art galleries and institutions addressing refugeedom and its legacies.
Price: £25.00
Pages: 288
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Publication Date:
06 January 2026
ISBN: 9781526181480
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
ART / Criticism & Theory, History of art, ART / History / General, HISTORY / Social History, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Emigration & Immigration, PHILOSOPHY / Aesthetics, Migration, immigration and emigration, Social and cultural history
‘This groundbreaking volume critically engages with debates on art and displacement, while also advancing vital reflections on ethical practices in museums working with artists of refugee backgrounds – offering rich insights for scholars and students in the intersecting fields of cultural history, art history, and curatorial studies.’
—Professor Anne Ring Petersen, University of Copenhagen
‘With a sharp focus on the multiple and contested meanings of displacement, the authors have engaged with artists and curators to produce an informative and timely book that deserves a broad readership.’
—Professor Peter Gatrell, University of Manchester
Introduction
1 Displacement aesthetics: visualising ‘refugees’ in the twentieth century
2 From representation to lived experience: displaced artists and intersectional barriers
3 The ‘problem’ of language: identifications, definitions, and translations
4 Labour and displacement aesthetics: participation, authorship, and institutional care
5 Displacement aesthetics: collaboration, co-curation and collections
Conclusion
Select bibliography
