King's College London

Letters of Refuge, the new exhibition presented at King’s, gives voice to those at two points in history who have experienced persecution and displacement. On display in The Arcade, Bush House from 13 March, fragments of ancient letters preserving the voices of people who lived under the Roman empire are exhibited alongside contemporary letters written at Art Refuge’s ‘The Community Table’ in Folkestone, Kent, and Calais, northern France by people who are displaced and seeking safety on either side of the English Channel.

Illustrating how much the ancient and modern worlds have to say to each other and juxtaposing letters from multiple voices past and present, Letters of Refuge is a collaboration between the Department of Classics and the Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies at King’s, King’s Culture, the charity Art Refuge and people with lived experience of displacement.

The exhibition finds its origins in the research of Dr James Corke-Webster, from King’s Departments of Classics and Liberal Arts. Dr Corke-Webster’s work explores the experience of persecution and displacement in the ancient world, revealing its neglected social dimensions, including family ruptures, local betrayals and community ostracism on the one hand, and group support and resilience on the other.

Dr Corke-Webster approached the charity Art Refuge in 2019 with the idea of exploring the potential resonance of these ancient historical texts in the modern context of persecution and displacement. This resulted in two workshops in Folkestone and Calais alongside the four core team members working in this setting: art therapists and artists Bobby Lloyd, Miriam Usiskin, Aida Silvestri and Josie Carter.

The workshops built on the charity’s ongoing use of manual typewriters as a creative tool for communication and play with language, with extracts from the ancient letters used as prompts for participants to write their own letters. The ancient historical material became a space for exploring issues of contemporary relevance for those taking part.

The exhibition also includes an iteration of The Community Table in situ, set up with typewriters for visitors to use, alongside 50 photographs documenting work taking place at the table over the last year, and a film documenting activity at The Community Table in Folkestone. In addition, artist Aida Silvestri and poet Josie Carter will produce their own artistic responses to the work, which will be shown in the exhibition space.

With the permission of the participants, the resulting immensely personal and moving letters form one half of the exhibited materials in Letters of Refuge. Originating from countries such as Eritrea, Libya, Sudan and Afghanistan, some are addressed to family members, others are written to a future self, some are directed to political leaders, and some even envisage a wider audience.

Letters of Refuge is supported by the Department of Classics, the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, and King’s Culture, as well as the Institute of Classical Studies at the School of Advanced Study of the University of London.