In 2012, photographer Anaïs López met a Javanese Myna in a hotel room in Singapore, a small black bird with yellow legs, a prominent crest and a sharp voice. He wakes her from behind the window and keeps screaming. She is fascinated by this bird and goes out to investigate.

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In The Migrant, Anaïs López tells the turbulent life story of Myna. The bird, a starling species, originally comes from Java (Indonesia) and is brought to Singapore at the beginning of the twentieth century as a sought after exotic showpiece. Today, the Javanese Myna in Singapore is being reviled, banned and even killed.

The Migrant is the remarkable life story of a bird, in which larger themes such as the difficult relationship between humans and animals, the consequences of rapid urban development and the position of the unwanted stranger come together.

Exhibition
The exhibition is the final piece in the trans-media project The Migrant, which Anaïs López developed together with producer Prospektor. It consists of a web series, a book, a radio documentary and a live story. All parts come together for the first time in the exhibition: photography, video, book and the underlying research. The basis of the exhibition comprises more than twenty of the most important photographic works. Half of these works have never been shown before.

In addition, a chapter is added to the project, with images from the collection of the Dutch Photo Museum of the Javanese Myna in Indonesia, from the time before the bird came to Singapore. Anaïs López has selected these photos together with the museum.

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22 Februari - 21 June 2020