The Annenberg Foundation takes a wider view of the global refugee crisis in an exhibition at its Los Angeles photography space. Simply titled Refugee (23 April-21 August), the show features 83 works by established artists and young students, depicting displaced communities and individuals from Bangladesh, Croatia, Greece, Mexico, Myanmar, Serbia, Slovenia, Cameroon, Germany and the US.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has fully backed the five artists involved in the show—Linsey Addario, Omar Victor Diop, Graciele Iturbide, Martin Schoeller and Tom Stoddart—with logistical support as they followed various refugee groups during their relocations. A documentary showing the photographers’ work, commissioned by the Annenberg Space for Photography, produced by Tiger Nest Films and narrated by the Academy Award-winning Australian actor Cate Blanchett, will play on a continuous loop at the gallery.
The show also includes images by 18 young people from the Soacha borough of Colombia who participated in a photography camp led by the non-profit organisation VisionWorkshops, which aims to provide marginalised youth with the tools of photojournalism and writing. The one-week workshop held in January this year encouraged students to share their stories, dreams and hopes for the future through photography. A virtual reality film that is part of the exhibition shows the Soacha youth working on their projects as well as footage of their siblings at home with their families.
“In this powerful exhibition… I believe we go to a place that only great and stirring art can truly go—deep into the humanity of the refugee crisis”, Wallis Annenberg, the CEO, chairman and president of the Annenberg Foundation said in a press statement. “I believe it’s essential viewing, so we don’t just see what’s happening in our world, we feel it.”
