Bird in Flight Prize ‘21 Finalist: One of Yours

Daniel Mayrit, Spain

The rise of populism is the biggest political challenge the world has faced in recent years. The phenomenon has also proliferated as a subject for TV shows and films. However, it is striking the void that exists within the arts in regards to a study of the visual schemes used by populist parties and candidates. For that reason, the aim of this project is to analyze, question and highlight the artificiality of the visual tactics that populist movements use in their communicative and discursive strategy.

By using photographic images and digital manipulations the author’s visual strategy deploys the very same techniques that populism uses in its rhetoric and its images, but in an exacerbated and ironic way so that it exposes and makes evident its performativity. The goal is not only to discredit and mock the visual means and clichés of populism but to provide viewers with tools for visual reflection in order to recognize and protect themselves against their manipulative mechanisms.