Richard Mosse Turns Military Thermal Camera on Refugee Crisis at Lieu Unique

Richard Mosse's first solo exhibition in France, 'Incoming,' opened at Le Lieu Unique in Nantes from June 28 to September 1, 2019, as part of Le Voyage à Nantes. The show features two recent projects: 'Heat Maps' (2016-18) from the series 'The Castle,' and the video installation 'Incoming' (2014-17). Mosse uses a thermal camera, a military-grade weapon capable of detecting a human body at 30 km, to capture refugees in camps in Greece, Bulgaria, Germany, and Lebanon, and along their Mediterranean journeys. The black-and-white, unreal images invert the technology's typical border surveillance and missile targeting purposes. 'Heat Maps' are large-format panoramas printed on metallic paper resembling survival blankets, showing small white silhouettes of refugees in crowded camps. 'Incoming' is a 20-minute, three-screen video with a soundtrack by Ben Frost, composed from field recordings. The work is described as invasive rather than immersive, with moments where the camera's temperature settings are reversed, such as a surgeon cutting a bone from a corpse for identification, or a rescuer trying to warm a child's body. Mosse previously gained attention for 'Infra' (2011) and 'The Enclave' (2013), using Kodak Aerochrome infrared film to depict the war in Congo. He won the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in 2014 and the Prix Pictet in 2017.