PARAISO
In his series ‘Paraíso’ Seba Kurtis captures the landscape where refugees first arrive after their hazardous journey across the Mediterranean Sea. Although many of them tragically die during this voyage. Kurtis reacted to this occurrence in his photographic series ‘Drowned’ in order to reframe the fatalities that are often documented in the news as mere numbers. Nevertheless, statistics and graphs are important for ‘Paraíso’, as Kurtis uses glitter in his photographs to visually trace and translate quantitative information about the Canary Islands, where surveys show socially and financially difficult environments with grievous consequences. In spite of it all, the Islands continue to be the destination of large numbers of illegal migrants. And thus, a dream of paradise is suddenly fading from the photograph with the Sueño sign (the artist’s wordplay in Spanish: dream – sueño, paradise – paraíso).
