The major humanitarian and political issue of our time is migration and with his latest video work - recreated over nearly 600 pages for this book - Irish artist Richard Mosse has created a searing, haunting and unique artwork. Moving from footage of a live battle inside Syria to a scene showing pathologists extracting DNA from the bones of unidentified corpses of refugees drowned off the Aegean island of Leros, the film opens a testimonial space of historical document. Narratives of the journeys made by refugees and migrants across the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe, are captured using advanced weapons-grade camera technology. The thermal military camera translates the world into a heat signature of apparent temperature difference, producing a dazzling monochrome halo-image which alludes literally and metaphorically to hypothermia, climate change, weapons targeting, border surveillance, xenophobia, and the ‘bare life’ of stateless people. The book version recreates the immersive nature of the film, combining still images from the entire sequence to represent the harsh and compelling narrative in a full bleed layout.

Incoming was made in collaboration with cinematographer Trevor Tweeten and composer Ben Frost and was co-commissioned by Barbican Gallery and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Published by MACK (London).

576 pages, 19.7 x 17.5cm, softcover, MACK (London).