Foreword A stateless person is someone who is not considered a national by any state. Some stateless people are also refugees. However, not all refugees are stateless, and many people who are stateless have never crossed an international border. The artists in the International Art Contest for Minority Artists Working on Statelessness Themes are ethnic, religious, national or linguistic minorities working on statelessness themes. They are currently stateless, have suffered statelessness, or may be threatened with it. These artists silhouette their realities, most significant concerns and obstacles imposed by the process of denied citizenship through their art. Their artistic communication explores the notion of belonging, of fragmented existence, how it impacts their translation of the world and how the world relates to their status. In their art, the element of their coerced vulnerability is ever-present. The feeling of not-belonging arises when the state denies certain people or communities with the right to a legal identity and rejects their legitimate ties to a state. At the same time, it also forces these people to occupy a place they do not want to be in, whether a physical or subjective place. According to one of the award-winning artists, Abdullah, there is a heavy weight of a vagabond lifestyle present in the Kutupalong refugee camp, one of the world’s largest refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Here, predominantly Rohingya individuals are ostensibly passing through and have no idea when they will leave or where they will be relocated. With his photography, he captures the raw depth of sentimental grief, optimism, and sheer bravery of the residents of this camp. Jean Philippe Moiseau, another award-winning artist, has mastered embedding his political message into his mosaic-like art pieces. For instance, he depicts a 2013 ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic that resulted in the revocation of nationality for thousands of Dominicans, most of them of Haitian descent. Brang Li, a Kachin artist, in turn, portrays this feeling of not-belonging through the shadows of people. In his artwork, the shadow people live among the crowd in Myanmar, but do not belong to the community. A political barrier separates them and makes them invisible in their stateless condition. The concept of fragmentation is particularly underlined by other artists, Mawa Rannahr, Naser Moradi and Amin Taasha, whose work embodies daily challenges and emotional relationships shattered by the tragedies of racism, war, and societal disputes. Finally, Zahra Hassan Marwan offers one of the most poignant tales of statelessness, sharing her personal experience of embracing culture to heal holistically while creating new emotional ties in a foreign place after being forced to migrate. The artworks presented in this catalogue have powerful imagery that evokes emotional impacts and compels the viewers to empathise with the daily challenges of stateless people. With this competition, we would like to acknowledge the immense power held in art as a tool for positive social reform in the global legal and political landscape. In using art as a communication medium, artists consciously or unconsciously initiate social, political or symbolic change. Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo & Aline Miklos Members of the Judges Panel of the International Art Contest for Minority Artists Working on Statelessness Themes 3