Habibou is an artwork inspired by the true story of Habibou Camara Peroni who, like many others, was forced to cross the Mediterranean Sea in 2015 in search of safety. Embarked at night against his will with ninety other people, his journey was marked by abandonment. Only thirty minutes after departing from Tripoli, the traffickers deserted the boat, leaving a single instruction: “Follow the star.” For those with no maritime experience, such guidance proved tragically futile. What followed was a terrifying ordeal of shipwreck, failed rescue, and over twenty-four hours of fear and suffering before a miraculous arrival in Italy. Many others were not so fortunate.
Deeply moved by this story marked by violence, the absurdity of relying on a single star in the darkness, and survival, the artist chose not to make trauma graphic, but to reflect critically on the asymmetries of visibility that define the European gaze on migration. The artwork is a series of three photographs showing large panels, each depicting a solitary star in a pitch-black sky, mounted on poles anchored in the sea. Each star appears in a different position, visually conveying the disorientation and hopelessness of those forced to entrust their lives to such an unreliable guide.
The project was conceived and developed in close dialogue with Habibou, whose consent and lived knowledge shaped the work at every stage. His voice is not substituted but acknowledged, foregrounding testimony over representation. The artist explicitly positions himself not as a spokesperson, but as a listener and facilitator of a space where a personal story becomes a prompt for reflecting on the responsibility that rests with each of us.
