Fugitive Belonging

In an environment of ever-accelerating political tectonic shifts, FUGITIVE BELONGING takes two politicizing events as its starting points: the “Summer of Snowden” (2013) and the “Summer of Migration” (2015). The two events have thus far been received and discussed as separate phenomena despite many quite obvious links (e.g., Snowden as a refugee). This book now explores the hidden links between them as embedded in the crisis of the state and the crisis of citizenship.
In attempting to come to a deeper understanding of what the two historical events reveal about our predicament, FUGITIVE BELONGING shifts our attention to the following questions: What does it mean to be political today? And what does it mean to belong?
By interlacing photography and writing, Krystian Woznicki explores how we can expand our horizon beyond memes such as “the refugee crisis” or “the surveillance state”. As an experiment on re-defining citizenship his book discloses what we all have in common: something that emerges when the dichotomy between the excluded and the included is contested, and when the conflicts that usually result from that dichotomy are rendered productive.
Praise “A terrific book. The merging of photography and extraordinarily timely writing is done so well, and I especially think that the organization of the writing into brief essayistic blasts that are then constellated so meaningfully makes the relationship – the changing relationships – among text and photographic image seem so alive to the moment.”
David Grubbs, composer, poet and scholar, author of “Now that the audience is assembled”
“The theme of the book – multiplicity, big data, contact – is more than a theme. It is in fact the ‘key tone’ of the epoch with which the texts/photographs wonderfully resonate by stimulating processes of becoming common.”
Jean-Luc Nancy, philosopher, author of “Being Singular Plural”
“For me the main topics of the book are the ambivalence of freedom and instability, the positive and negative effects of technologies, the rise of new movements and the ascendancy of new forms of state power. The book shows how this has become relevant not only for understanding the world we live in but also for the the newfound struggle over political agency and belonging.”
Eiji Oguma, sociologist, activist and filmmaker, author of “Tell the Prime Minister”
Krystian Woznicki is a critic and photographer. He is the author of “A Field Guide to the Snowden Files” (with Magdalena Taube), “After the Planes” (with Brian Massumi) and “Wer hat Angst vor Gemeinschaft?” (with Jean-Luc Nancy), all published by Diamondpaper. His first book “Abschalten. Paradiesproduktion, Massentourismus und Globalisierung” was published by Kadmos. He is the cofounder of Berliner Gazette (http://berlinergazette.de).
Credits: FUGITIVE BELONGING has been conceived in the context of “Signals”, a project by Berliner Gazette e. V. which was funded by the Capital Cultural Fund. The book is published in conjunction with “Signals. An Exhibition of the Snowden Files in Art, Media and Archives”, September 12-November 1, 2017, at Diamondpaper Studio, curated by Magdalena Taube and Krystian Woznicki. More info: http://berlinergazette.de/signals