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Background information
"In the wake of the financial and refugee crises, economic and social insecurity, Brexit, and not least in view of the pandemic and its economic and social upheavals, identitarian movements are gaining popularity worldwide. With dark visions of the future, including overpopulation and social decline, they stoke fears and, committed to so-called 'common sense,' peddle supposed solutions and promises that propagate exclusion and intolerance. The increasing political power of the parties of the populist right - UKIP in the United Kingdom, Dansk Folkeparti (DF) in Denmark, FPÖ in Austria, AfD in Germany, Vox in Spain, or the Swiss People's Party (SVP), to name just a few - is affecting all of Europe.
Content
For his new cycle of works and photo volume 'Citizens', Swiss photographer Christian LUTZ documented places, movements, people of right-wing populist character across Europe. Far away from the usual polarized media coverage, he finds with his calm pictorial metaphors - in the form of direct portraits turned towards the protagonists*, shots of rallies, post-industrial landscapes, bars and meeting places - a multi-layered photographic approach that is able to give expression to a deep-seated despair." (© Edition Patrick Frey, 2021)