The Flood examines the malicious metaphor of refugees as threatening water: “a tsunami of refugees”; “our country is being flooded”; “they are pouring into Europe.” This rhetoric has gradually been adopted by mainstream politicians and media. It seeps into laws and policies.

In reality, it is the refugees whose lives are threatened by the water. People trying to survive the Mediterranean Sea in rubber boats. Trying to survive the winter in primitive tents on the Aegean coast. People who are violently pushed back at Europe’s borders. For them, water is truly deadly.

As a spectator, you feel as if with The Flood you are yourself in the middle of the deep, churning sea.

About Tina Farifteh
Tina Farifteh is an Iranian-Dutch photographer and filmmaker. Her photographic approach is research-based and conceptual and often combines (moving) images, audio, text, and data. She invites viewers to look at subjects we prefer to look away from due to their complexity or discomfort. Among other things, she reflects on how human-made power structures such as nation-states and corporations affect the lives of ordinary people. Often focused on people who are not only excluded from the privileges granted by dominant political and economic systems but also sacrificed for the system to 'work'.

For the monumental audiovisual installation The Flood, she has won multiple awards and was recently named 'Master Storyteller' by the Storytelling Journalism Foundation.
With her short film Kitten or Refugee?, she won 1st place in the Storytelling category of De Zilveren Camera in 2023. This film can be seen during Into The Great Wide Open at Podium Vlieland, as part of the short film compilation Other Futures, A Better Today 2.

Tina Farifteh - https://tinafarifteh.com/

The art program of Into The Great Wide Open is made possible with support from the Creative Industry Fund, Mondriaan Fund, and De Versterking. The screening at Into The Great Wide Open is made possible by INDYVIDEO.