Cite as: Tsilimpounidi et al., 2021, Representing and commoning the refugee crisis: The ‘assemblage’ of the Lesvos Migration Atlas. Journal of Visual Political Communication, Volume 7, pp. 11-42(32).
This article uses a critical lens to examine the various representations of the so-called ‘refugee crisis’ in Lesvos, Greece through both the system of the hotspot regime and the performative acts of commoning, defined as the creation of the commons. It also proposes a process of commoning by the creation of an ‘assemblage’ of the Lesvos Migration Atlas. In this manner, the Atlas as an outcome of the research is itself a representation that embraces theory, narratives, practices, and acts; a visual and symbolic tool that provides space for photographic material, videos, artworks, (re)mappings, everyday stories, and reflective texts. At the same time, it is a collective process of capturing, writing and representing, open to new material and scripts ‐ thus a product in a process of becoming.