Roland Fischer - Refugees | Stephan Lessenich, Bernhard Waldenfels

Roland Fischer was inspired by the current political and social events relating t o the topic of refugees to create a collective portrait consisting of over 1,000 separate photographs. Central questions about identity and solidarity, which are the subject of discussion in the socio - political debate, are raised and treated in an artistic manner. The term “refugees” is removed from its abstract context and real people appear in the viewer’s field of vision, complete with name. As regards motif and topic, a collective portrait like this one, for which the artist mounted 1,000 individual por traits, hovers between the individual and the collective. While refugees and migrants are perceived primarily as an abstract collective and an indeterminate mass, especially as a result of the reporting in the media, Roland Fischer and his art project poin t out that this collective is comprised of many individuals with personal, individual fates.