Migrant Images. Refugees between Pathos and Montage

Abstract

The article is an attempt to explain the basic methodological principles behind the project of the online visual platform called Refugee Atlas. The crucial issue discussed here is the relation between the work on the atlas and the legacy of German art historian Aby Warburg’s Der Bilderatlas Mnemosyne. The author explains how he applied central notions, such as Pathosformeln, Nachleben, the polarity of the symbol, used by Warburg, to work concerning visual representation of the “refugee crisis” and long cultural history of migration. Besides, the text contains numerous remarks about anthropological research recently devoted to the issue of migration and its possible convergence with Warburg’s outstanding explorations in the domain of iconology.

Keywords

• anthropology of images
• formulas of pathos
• the figure of the refugee
• history of migration
• Aby Warburg