I died 22 times
Germany
2022
I died 22 times bears witness to the concept of warfare in our culture outside real battlefields. Within our society, war does not only manifest itself as a traditional military conflict with clearly marked fronts; it takes on more abstract forms too. I died 22 times asks the question “Where does war begin?” and answers it by combining motifs from different scenarios. Images of weapon fairs (war as mere business) are combined with scenes from Airsoft (a hyper realistic leisure activity of war as a game). These examples have one thing in common: war is reduced to and experienced and presented as an entertaining, disembodied and harmless activity. Nobody dies.
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About the artist
Born in 1990 in Germany, Rafaël Heygster studied cultural anthropology and political sciences at the University of Hamburg as well as photojournalism and documentary photography in Hannover and Aarhus. He focuses on the relation between individuals and their social, cultural and political environment from a humanistic approach. His award-winning work has been exhibited internationally.