Armand Quetsch, dystopian circles/fragments… all along (2008–2016)

The photographer and the invisible. The photographer and reality. The photographer and his camera. Armand Quetsch decided to take a reverse route to the known migration tracks through Europe. Firstly he travelled to Lampedusa and tried to draw a North-South line from Brussels, where he was then living, to the island. He crosses non-existent borders and establishes imaginary yet concrete relationships between seats of power, centres of finance and politics, and those who feel disarmed. Many of them felt suppressed and crushed after the financial crisis of exactly 10 years ago. This global crisis, which began in the United States, insinuated the collapse of large financial institutions in Europe, and hit many people economically and personally.

Quetsch takes us on a journey through a continent in despair; he returned with an oeuvre based on a matrix of delusions, violence and crisis. During his travels he paused and often wandered, passing by the people involved. Instead, he decided to point his camera at silent witnesses, such as buildings, mountains, roads and signs. He determinedly and persistently avoided acting and relying on well-known photo journalistic language.

What can photography mean in a world that is overloaded with images? While the first goal of his journey was to tackle the refugee crisis, Quetsch changed his gaze to the European landscape, and the extent to which this could reveal the tensions and malaise of our times.

Armand Quetsch (b. 1980) is an artist based in Mamer, Luxembourg. He has published two books with Peperoni Books and exhibited in cities from Brussels to Dudelange, Berlin, Vienna, Arles, and Krakow.