Welcome to Camp America Exhibition
January 11, 2017 marked the 15th anniversary of the opening of the first “War on Terror” prison at the United States Naval Station in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba (known as “Gitmo” after its military call letters, GTMO). Conceptual documentary artist and former civil rights lawyer Debi Cornwall’s exhibition, Welcome to Camp America, plumbs the familiar in this state of exception, marrying empathy and dark humor with systemic critique.
Gitmo at Home, Gitmo at Play series), and gift-shop souvenirs (Gitmo on Sale series). In the 15 years since its prisons opened, Gitmo has housed 780 "detainees." The vast majority have been cleared and released, returning home or transferred to third countries. In the Beyond Gitmo series, Cornwall collaborates with 14 former prisoners in nine countries, from Albania to Qatar, plus a former guard, to make environmental portraits replicating, in the free world, the military’s “no faces” rule. In finding common ground between guards and prisoners, military and civilian, left and right, Camp America offers a new discourse about the “War on Terror,” provoking new questions about American-ness and civil society across the global West.
Welcome to Camp America: Inside Guantánamo Bay (Radius 2017), with unique design, text in English and Arabic, and essays by British releasee Moazzam Begg, Fred Ritchin, and Cornwall, will be released in September. The book, gift-shop souvenirs, vintage postcards, and once-classified government documents are also available for display.
Programming: This work addresses not only Guantánamo itself, but also larger themes of justice, rights, security and humanity that apply equally in the United States, Europe, and around the world in the post-9/11 era. Educational programming may be scheduled in collaboration with the artist, who draws on her background as a civil rights lawyer and trained mediator to engage local audiences. Please email debi@debicornwall.com for a PDF of the exhibition description and checklist.
The completed exhibition debuted at the Centre de la Photographie Genève in 2017, and is packaged for shipping to the next European venue. As images from the most recent chapter, Beyond Gitmo, are embargoed until the book launch, the CPG installation video is password protected for now, and images within the installation views page omit photographs of all but one released man. Please contact me to receive the Vimeo password and a private link to images of released men. Cont'd below.
Installation view, Centre de la Photographie Genève (2017)
The Punctum Award-winning solo exhibition at the 2016 Lianzhou Foto Festival did not include the final chapter of work:
Installation view, Lianzhou Foto Festival (2016).
