El Muro. Now You See Me Moria
Moria was created on the Greek island of Lesbos in 2015. Since then, it has grown to become Europe’s largest refugee camp. The posters from the Now You See Me Moria project, on display on El Muro of La Casa Encendida, aim to publicise the human tragedy currently unfolding in Moria.
Due to the growing number of residents and the already overcrowded existing facilities, living conditions at the camp have deteriorated dramatically. Furthermore, after a devastating fire in September 2020, thousands of people were forced to move to another camp nearby, Mavrovouni, which is now known as Moria 2. The fire left vast numbers of men, women and children homeless and without basic sanitation, but information disappeared from the news after journalists saw their access to the camp restricted and NGO workers on site were persuaded not to take photographs of the scenes before their eyes.
Amir was one of the residents who immediately called attention to the desperate situation at Moria by posting photos on social media. In August 2020, Noemí, a Spanish photographer and photo editor, was impacted by an image she saw on Facebook and got in touch with Amir. That initial contact soon led to collaboration and the creation of the Instagram account @now_you_see_me_moria. Since then, the collective has grown to include Ali, Qutaeba and Mustafa, all residents of Moria. They share stories through @now_you_see_me_moria, documenting the plight of the refugees and the stagnation in the resolution of this critical situation due to European immigration laws.
The project aims to break the stereotypes about refugees by emphasising the importance of self-representation and creating a visual narrative about migration.
In January 2021, Now You See Me Moria launched an open call to increase diminishing public awareness about the conditions at Moria, inviting graphic designers from all over the world to create posters with the photographs on the Instagram account. The call generated no less than 446 posters, which formed the basis of the action book designed by the graphic artists Raoul Gottschling and Christian Knöpfel. Anyone interested can organise an exhibition to raise awareness about the circumstances in Lesbos and European migration in general.
Now You See Me Moria (NYSMM) is formed by Noemí from the Netherlands, Amir from Afghanistan, Qutaeba from Syria, Ali and Mustafa from Afghanistan, graphic designers like Raoul, street artists, political science students, and many other people.
