Derbyshire museum hosts memorial to seafarer refugees who lost their lives

The Lampedusa Cross, made by Francesco Tuccio (photo: The Trustees of the British Museum).

The artefact, which is exhibited at Derby Museum and Art Gallery, carries poignant messages about kindness, community and the indifference faced by many refugees.

Alongside the cross is a display of twelve tiny boats from Syrian-born Issam Kourbajʼs series Dark Water, Burning World, made from repurposed bicycle mudguards tightly packed with burned matches to represent the fragile vessels used by refugees to make their perilous voyages across the Mediterranean.

In 2013, an overcrowded boat carrying 466 migrants from Somalia and Eritrea caught fire, capsized and sank near the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa. At that time, there was no official maritime rescue service and 311 lives, fleeing persecution and seeking refuge in Europe, were lost.

Dark Water, Burning World by Issam Kourbaj. (photo: The Trustees of the British Museum).

Moved by the plight of survivors whom he met in his church, the island’s carpenter, Francesco Tuccio, made an individual cross for each person. Acting as a mark of the 155 survivors’ salvation from the sea and their hope for the future, the cross also reflects the fate of many migrants.

Tuccio also made larger crosses that he gifted as a plea for discussion about community and responsibility – it is in this context that the British Museum acquired the Lampedusa Cross in 2015, simply made from two pieces of brightly painted wood fitted together.

Derby Museums curator Jill Cook said: “The Lampedusa Cross reminds us of all the histories that are lost and of the thousands of people who are not otherwise remembered. The wood with its paint blistered by the sun and smelling of salt, sea, and suffering embodies a crisis of our times, as well as hope. It is an artefact shaped by tragedy that symbolises those who have nothing and desperately seek to share in a better future. As such, it is touchingly complemented by Issam Koubraj’s little boats.”

The Lampedusa Cross is on display in Derby Museum and Art Gallery until March 6, 2022. The Crossings: community and refuge exhibition is free of charge with a request to visitors to Give What You Think. For more information, go to www.derbymuseums.org or call 01332 641901.