Seba Kurtis

Seba Kurtis was born in Argentina in 1974. He studied journalism in Buenos Aires before leaving the country for Europe in the wake of the political and economic crisis of 2001. Several years spent as an illegal immigrant have informed much of his work, which explores the personal, social and cultural impact of irregular migration.

Talcum

Seba Kurtis’ work challenges the dehumanizing framework of legality that seeks to limit and filter the movement of people fleeing poverty, oppression and war. While working at a refugee camp in Normandy Kurtis was struck a newspaper article under the headline ”Hidden in a tank truck full of talcum," in which a refugee described the torturous ordeal undertook to enter Europe. The free movement of goods and resources is set in terrible contrast to the blockades set up our fellow human beings. Working with the inhabitants of the camps Kurtis’ collaged portraits express the suffocating frustration of the liminal status imposed on Refugees, breaking the stereotypical depiction of this important issues in terms of the ‘mass’ movement of people, foregrounding undeniable, humanity and dignity of each individual.