Refugees fleeing conflict zones of the world have turned their search for safety to Europe, in what has developed into the biggest human migration since WWII. As this crisis expands into the world media, our art activist project attempts to bring multiple perspectives of this complex situation into focus for a deeper understanding. We set up a roll of paper in the transit zone of Keleti station as
the migration wave was peaking in Budapest. We asked the refugees waiting, as well as volunteers and supporters to write and draw their impressions, dreams, experiences. We then photographed each of them alongside this personal “message to the world” they wanted to share. In order to elevate their individual plight above the catastrophe images of migrating masses, we took single portrait photographs of them in front of a white screen. Using this common format of popular western ad styling, we present our subjects in a familiar cultural context so as to break down prejudice and allow the human side of this crisis to come through. Yet, as we got closer to their personal stories, many of the wider questions of the crisis came to the fore. As each new story showed us, this humanitarian crisis reflects on the greater fragility of Europe and its future cultural identity.
