Softex, the latest series from Berlin-based photographer Christian Vagt is named after one of Greece’s most notorious refugee camps, which operates out of an abandoned toilet paper factory where 1000-plus residents wait listlessly for some hint of what their future will be. The subject is not new, but what makes Vagt’s series unique is its refusal to allow the viewer false proximity to refugees. The photographs are captured from a moving vehicle and so the fences take the foreground, obscuring the human figures that would normally be the focus and making the viewer aware of their own ignorance about what is actually going on inside these camps. The result: images that deny the viewer the opportunity to replace action with catharsis. An open discussion about how to actually help will be held on November 11 at 19:00.
Softex, Nov 1-12 | SomoS, Kotbusser Damm 95, Neukölln, U-Bhf Schönleinstr.
