Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Examining iconographies of flight, exile and migration in a changing Europe
Austria is a common destination in Europe for refugees fleeing persecution or economic instability in their home countries. This volume presents works by Austria-based artists who explore the issues of flight, migration, borders and exile.
Synopsis
People flee from war, persecution, and poverty and search for a way to reach an unfamiliar land to start a new life there. What human stories are behind the media reports about these escapes? 'Traces and Masks of Refugees' intends to bypass the widely-circulated (refugee) statistics and facts, to bypass the media-related furore and political debates, and instead to use individual artworks to tell personal stories. The 'Traces and Masks of Refugees' exhibition and this accompanying publication present works by artists, most of them living in Austria, who explore the issues of fleeing, migration and prejudice, who process their own experience of flight in different ways or refuse to accept it as a label of identification. Published on the occasion of the exhibition at State Gallery of Lower Austria / Landesgalerie Nieder sterreich, Krems, 12 September 2020 - 26 September 2021.