Bouchra Khalili, The mapping journey: one of the best works of the century

Bouchra Khalili’s The Mapping Journey Project (2008, 2011) has been selected as one of the 25 best artworks of the 21st century by Frieze Magazine.

Produced over three years across the Mediterranean region, the work consists of eight video portraits of individuals who, displaced by political or economic forces, recount the clandestine routes that have shaped their lives. Filmed in single static takes, each participant draws their trajectory with a thick black marker on a map, their voice guiding the viewer through borders, checkpoints, detours, and waiting zones. Their faces remain unseen, a choice that protects their identity while emphasizing the collective dimension of migration.

In these gestures, Khalili transforms a geopolitical map, an instrument of control, into a space of testimony and resistance. The work constructs an alternative cartography, one defined by human movement and survival rather than state demarcations. Refusing the language of surveillance and spectacle that often surrounds migration, The Mapping Journey Project insists on the dignity of self-representation and the power of narration as political action.

Presented in institutions such as the New Museum, Jeu de Paume, and the 60th Venice Biennale (2024), the work is part of the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and has become a landmark in contemporary video art a quiet yet radical reflection on displacement, belonging, and the politics of visibility.

Experience The Mapping Journey currently on view at Louisiana Museum until November 30th.

Bouchra Khalili, The Mapping Journey Project, 2008, 2011, Exhibition views. Courtesy: © Bouchra Khalili, Venice Biennale, and mor charpentier, Paris.