Dek Unu Magazine - Horia Manolache

Romanian photographer Horia Manolache, reimagines and “repaints” history. In a present moment that is hot with political controversy about immigration, he looks at the art of the past and asks a pointed and timely question, “What if?” What if the totems and signifiers of power were upended? What if the refugees, the homeless, the disenfranchised, the “others” replaced the royals in court portraits? Would seeing a refugee – elaborately coiffed, dressed in silk and gold brocade, posed with the staged confidence of a VIP – suggest that prejudice should be replaced by empathy? And that our common humanity should confer status, privilege, and dignity – not a lucky accident of birth?