Joggers shoot selfies, ramblers are mesmerized, mothers and fathers who take their babys for a walk stop, whip out their handys and take snapshots – the huge new graffiti at the old harbour mole can be seen from afar. Nobody passing by is left untouched because mostly everyone remembers the sad photograph of the drowned refugee child Aylan.
The Frankfurter graffiti artists Oğuz Şen and Justus Becker used the photo as pattern and created this overwhelming mural. In an interview with local broadcaster HR they said that it took a lot of willpower to paint this, but they decided to do so anyhow hoping to contribute to less insane conditions at the European borders. The harbour mole seemed to be an obvious location evoking the picture of the Turkish coast. Overmore as the place faces the European Central Bank (ECB) as a symbol for the actual so fenced-in Europe. Becker explains, he has chosen the picture because people “only take care, when things come close to their doorstep.”
Half a year ago this picture raised a medial debate: Shall we show it? Should we? Some weren’t sure about and pixelized the body or the head of the drowned little boy. The Turkish photographer Nilüfer Demir told reporters, that she wanted to show the “silent outcry” of the child, standing for the other eleven children who died in the sea that morning including the four year old brother of Aylan. As she saw the boy was dead and that she couldn’t save his life, she decided to do what was left, to show the world what was going on. She underlined that none of the drowned children wore a lifejacket. There was no shelter. Her photograph became an icon or as Susan Sontag wrote 1973 in her Essay „On Photography “: „Photography furnishes evidence. Something we hear about, but doubt, seems proven when we’re shown a photograph of it.”
The Frankfurter graffiti artists Oğuz Şen and Justus Becker used the photo as pattern and created this overwhelming mural. In an interview with local broadcaster HR they said that it took a lot of willpower to paint this, but they decided to do so anyhow hoping to contribute to less insane conditions at the European borders. The harbour mole seemed to be an obvious location evoking the picture of the Turkish coast. Overmore as the place faces the European Central Bank (ECB) as a symbol for the actual so fenced-in Europe. Becker explains, he has chosen the picture because people “only take care, when things come close to their doorstep.”
Half a year ago this picture raised a medial debate: Shall we show it? Should we? Some weren’t sure about and pixelized the body or the head of the drowned little boy. The Turkish photographer Nilüfer Demir told reporters, that she wanted to show the “silent outcry” of the child, standing for the other eleven children who died in the sea that morning including the four year old brother of Aylan. As she saw the boy was dead and that she couldn’t save his life, she decided to do what was left, to show the world what was going on. She underlined that none of the drowned children wore a lifejacket. There was no shelter. Her photograph became an icon or as Susan Sontag wrote 1973 in her Essay „On Photography “: „Photography furnishes evidence. Something we hear about, but doubt, seems proven when we’re shown a photograph of it.”
Seems still to be valid. Even in times of easy digital processing or faking of pictures. In this case it’s the evidence of cruelty that shines through. The cruelty of wired borders. The artists have chosen. A strong sign for Frankfurt.
