It Looks Nice from a Distance takes the form of a multi-media installation, incorporating text, sound, video installation, and sculpture. It explores the themes of otherness and displacement by paralleling the notions of migration and tourism, shedding light on the gap between these two realities.
The titular seven-channel video installation shows images of “the influx of border crossings” recorded in 2016 by the artist after “more than 700,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean”. Superimposed on these videos are live streams of surveillance footage from deserted beaches in Europe–located on the Mediterranean migration routes–following the closure of borders linked to the health crisis due to the pandemic.
Here, through a meditative exercise, the artist invites the viewers to reflect on the different experiences of border, belonging, and otherness in order to recontextualize the notion of displacement at the present time.