According to the International Organization for Migration, the total number of international migrants has increased from an estimated 150 million people in 2000 to 214 million people today. As the number of migrants has grown, so have their destinations diversified, broadening the prevalence of both journey (on the part of the immigrant or refugee) and reception (on the part of the host community). People have always wandered, but the recent proliferation of migration and mobility in our globalized world shifts the reference point of migrant and fixed resident alike: everyone is a fellow traveler. While nation-states have long provided a foundation for understanding alliances between large groups of people, today’s cultural flows spill across national borders. Migrants are one element among many that constitute global circulations of culture, politics and economy, and the contemporary denizen must continually negotiate acculturations between the many communities that compose their lives. “The Permanent Longing for Elsewhere” features works that hone in on a sense of frustration that often accompanies experiences of migration, exploring how national identification is breaking down as a suitable frame of reference in a globalized world. By stimulating the political imagination, these films prompt a consideration of what is to be both done and undone in light of contemporary, itinerant realities.

I Hate Karl Marx | Rainer Ganahl/USA-Austria 2010. Video, 6 mins.
Mapping Journey #3 | Bouchra Khalili/Morocco-France 2009. Video, 4 mins.
Flag Mountain | John Smith/Great Britain 2010. Video, 8 mins.
Messages from Paradise #1, Egypt: Austria - About the Permanent Longing for Elsewhere | Daniela Swarowsky/Austria-Netherlands-Germany 2009. Video,  44 mins.

+