Arena focuses on bringing light to individual and personal stories linked to migration and its criminalization, while simultaneously questioning the imagery and narratives surrounding European border politics and control. In a sea of violent imagery that we face daily through our phone screens, Tom Lyon proposes a re-evaluation of certain events and places by creating a other semiology of the image—one that encourages reflection, empathy, and dialogue, actively seeking and holding space for stories that challenge dominant and accepted narratives.

In response to the imagery presented in media, Tom Lyon’s approach to image-making aims to give space for a different visual language to enter and reshape the perspectives surrounding migration.

His photographs document personal stories, testimonies of lived experiences, symbolic events or elements. Through research and the introduction of found media footage into his work, Lyon confronts specific cases related to European criminalisation of migration and sea rescue in the Mediterranean, placing into dialogue various contemporary discourses and adding a layer to his work in which the very questioning of the image becomes integral. Lyon roots his practice not only in his need to take action against the injustices of our system, but also incorporates a militant position that serves as a response to the limitations he encounters in image-making.

Text : Nina Turina