Barthélémy Toguo — Road to Exile

I keep coming back to Barthélémy Toguo’s work because it feels alive, even when it’s still. His installations, carved wooden figures, and use of everyday objects like passports or fabric seem to carry the weight of memory and travel. They’re witnesses to migration, displacement, and human endurance. It makes me wonder: do objects remember where they’ve been, or is it just me projecting stories onto them? maybe both. maybe that’s the magic of making.

One artwork of his that hits me hard is “Road to Exile”, a monumental installation that speaks directly to the perilous journeys many migrants and refugees endure. the piece features a life-sized wooden boat, piled high with bundles of fabric wrapped in bright, african patterns. These bundles are not just luggage but memories, belongings and lives in transit. the boat itself is precariously balanced on a bed of broken glass bottles, a symbol of the danger, fragility, and instability of the journey. The bottles represent the risk of capsizing, of harm, the sharp obstacles that migrants face along the way.

What makes this work especially moving is its scale. Standing next to the boat, you are forced to confront the enormity of the journey, it’s overwhelming, almost impossible to ignore. The life-sized dimensions make it immersive; you feel as if you could step into the precarious vessel yourself. The height of the bundles, the width of the boat, and the tension of balance over glass create a physical impact that tiny models or images could never achieve. It transforms the viewer from a distant observer to a participant, making the danger, hope, and vulnerability palpable. The scale amplifies the emotional weight of the piece, forcing empathy and reflection in a way smaller objects cannot.

Toguo first presented this project in 2008 at the national museum of immigration in Paris, and has since created multiple versions for exhibitions around the world. The work is part of his broader exploration of socio-political issues, particularly the human impact of migration. It addresses the “push and pull” factors that compel people to leave their homes. conflict, poverty, opportunity, hope. The visual language of the piece is meticulous: the weight of the boat, the color of the fabrics, the sharpness of the glass, all working together to create a sense of tension. Of course it’s viewed as a political statement but it’s also an accumulation of emotional experiences.

Toguo reminds me that scale can amplify presence and emotion. As I often work with small-scale works in my practice, I wonder: can a small, fragile object carry the same weight of memory and vulnerability as a life-sized installation?