Who were the ‘Ghost Walkers’ on the ice?
In 1923, an American border guard saw white shadows slipping across the frozen water. They were not ghosts, but Belgians in search of a new life in America. With the temporary exhibition Drifting Belgians, the Red Star Line Museum invited you to look at a little-known chapter of our history in a new, artistic way: the European emigrants, with a focus on Belgian travelers from the 1920s who, despite strict restrictions on American immigration, still ventured across via Canada.
“In January 1923, during one of his patrols, American border guard John Coe spied on the frozen Detroit River through his binoculars, and he saw four people on the white ice coming his way who looked like ghosts. They were two Belgians and an Italian, accompanied by a Canadian smuggler. They had draped white sheets over themselves as camouflage and covered the soles of their shoes with iron to prevent slipping. It was a common practice. The local population spoke of ghost walkers, as a symbol of a growing illegal industry in the American-Canadian border area of the early 1920s.”
In the exhibition Drifting Belgians, visual artist Mashid Mohadjerin took you into a forgotten chapter of our history. She took you back to the 1920s, when Belgians, despite strict immigration laws, still ventured to cross to America via Canada.
You experienced what it ment to be 'on the move'
Mashid Mohadjerin traveled after them and turned this journey into a poignant and artistic experience. Through photos, audio, and video installations, she made the emotions of the migrants tangible. Historical postcards and letters, but also contemporary messages, showed what the home front received from their distant relatives.
As a visitor, you followed a trajectory through the exhibition yourself. You experienced what it ment to be ‘on the move’: the search for happiness at the risk of one's own life, the dream of a better existence, and the raw collision with reality.
© Wim Hadermann
Visual artist Mashid Mohadjerin (b. 1976, Tehran) translates this story into a visual language that subtly weaves together documentary and artistic imagination. Mohadjerin obtained her doctorate in the arts in 2021 at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp and works internationally with photography, video, sound, collages, and text. Her work has been shown and awarded worldwide and constantly explores multi-perspective narratives.
