Sean Anderson on Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and ShelterSean Anderson on Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter

For over 60 million people in the world today, shelter must be sought through constant movement or escape. This fact motivated Sean Anderson, a curator at MoMA, to organize the exhibition Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter to explore the ways in which contemporary architecture and design have addressed notions of shelter in the light of global refugee emergencies.

From the strengthening of international borders to the logistics of mobile housing systems, how we understand shelter is ultimately defined through an engagement with security. Refugee camps, once considered temporary settlements, have become sites where we can examine how human rights intersect with the making of cities. Bringing together projects by architects, designers and artists that respond to the complex circumstances brought about by forced displacement on a range of mediums and scales, the exhibition _Insecurites_ focuses on the conditions that disrupt conventional images of the built environment.

Sean Anderson is associate curator in the department of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. A fellow of the American Academy in Rome, he holds degrees in architectural design and history from Cornell University, an M. Arch from Princeton University and a Ph.D in art history from the University of California, Los Angeles. He has practiced as an architect and taught in Afghanistan, Australia, India, Italy, Morocco, Sri Lanka and the UAE. He is also the author of two books, the second of which, Modern Architecture and its Representation in Colonial Eritrea, was published in 2015 (Routledge). Sean Anderson is part of the International Visitors Programme of Het Nieuwe Instituut.

Respondent was Kilian Kleinschmidt (Global Networker and Humanitarian Expert), moderator was Marina Otero (Het Nieuwe Instituut).