If we look at the recent past of the European peoples, we will come across a series of historical conditions, circumstances, moments and periods that motivated people to seek for a better life elsewhere, escape from the things they could tolerate no more, search for safe refuge.

What all these human stories have to tell us? How can we self-reflect on these experiences with a steady gaze at the ongoing flows? Can we understand better present phenomena by keeping in hand the past of the displaced Europeans?

The people that travel, leave behind lives and belongings, risk and manage to reach a safe place, are outcasts. They are the outcasts of Europe. In their journey, not everything is left behind. Many times, people manage to take with them the things that are necessary, important, sacred, familial, personal. Usually, the objects that travel are tools, functionals, life-savers. Yet, often they are more than this. They carry history, culture, values, memories, parts of the house, family, neighbourhood, friends. Objects are a source of power for those that carry them. Since the dawn of civilisation, they are protective, they contain ancestral force or wisdom, they carry the blessing of the community, they are magical, they connect the past with the future in the present. Outcast Europe collects and exhibits the objects. The objects speak, tell stories, the stories of humankind. We have the opportunity to listen and speak with them about our common future.

Nikos Pasamitros, Academic Director of Inter Alia, PhD candidate, Panteion University of Athens.

If you have an object that carries a personal or family story;

If you are interested in placing it in a context that views migration and refugeeship as a continuous journey of people from different times and places;

If you see your experience as part of a whole, surrounded by the other pieces of the puzzle, by other people who share a similar experience;

If you want your experiences acknowledged, communicated, heard, valued;

If you want to contribute in creating a collective narrative;

If, then, some of this describes your personal, family, or community experience related to migration or displacement,

please share your story and item picture here