Charting the unfolding migration crisis across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, Richard Mosse’s film, Incoming bears witness to significant chapters in recent world events, mediated through an advanced weapons-grade thermal camera which records the biological trace of human life.
We live in a new era of closed borders, halted migration, and widespread fear of contagion. Refugee camps within Europe, such as Moria on Lesbos Island in Greece, have been quarantined and the gates locked, becoming, in essence, open air prisons teeming with asylum seekers. In this context, Richard Mosse's immersive video artwork, Incoming (2017), is as relevant as ever.
While EU nations discuss the pros and cons of introducing 'immunity passports', Giorgio Agamben's idea of 'bare life' is foregrounded. Immunity passports would be another instance of biopolitics, the stripping of our essential human rights by the nation-state during a state of emergency caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Agamben's ideas were a source of inspiration to Mosse while he made Incoming.
This talk took place on 20 February 2017 when Richard Mosse's Incoming was on display in The Curve.
