Towards a Promised Land
Wendy Ewald
July 2005 - November 2006, Margate, Kent

Towards a Promised Land documents Wendy Ewald's work with twenty-two children new to the British seaside town of Margate. Some arrived fleeing countries afflicted by war, poverty or political strife; others by following their families from one town to the next. Over 18 months, Ewald photographed her subject-artists and interviewed them about their past and present lives, while teaching them how to make their own photographs.

In July 2005 Artangel Wendy Ewald's photographic portraits of the children appeared along Margate's Sea Wall as huge, iconic banners. From 20 May 2006, the Sea Wall images were joined by the second and final phase of Towards a Promised Land with banner photographs hung around the centre of Margate; while the children's own projects formed an exhibition at a local gallery.
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Michael Morris: How were the parameters of such an ambitious project first mapped out?

Wendy Ewald: I visited Margate about a year before the project actually began. At that point we had no idea who we were going to work with. We walked around and visited schools and groups and institutions; we went to the mosque; we met kids who were caring for adults. It was very interesting, overwhelming actually, as there were about ten different groups I could have worked with.

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"We came from Congo on a plane. We left because there is a war in Kinshasa. We left my cousins, the houses and friends. I brought nothing... well, a little bit. It was just me and my mum. The journey wasn't good, but I liked the plane.We always fastened our seatbelts and in the window it made clouds. Kinshasa is not good because it is unsafe. One day at school the kids were throwing stones at the soldiers, and there were bullets in the air. Some students were killed. The students who were against the president wanted to come into school to loot us."

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