The collection includes thousands of standardized portraits of prisoners of war, guards and Austrians inhabitants, prepared and archived for “scientific” purposes. Forgács’s work, however, does not seek to offer a historical treatment of the material, but demonstrates, through a labyrinthine structure, the many ways in which we can look at a fellow human being.
How does the modern viewer look at, consider, misunderstand or comprehend the same pictures in the different contexts provided by art history, history, contemporary art, biography or psychology? Charged with a dramatic power, the work will confront whoever is willing to read the eyes of these persons with moral issues, the lack of historical recollection and the disturbing experience of prejudiced responses in action.