An Authoritarian Spectacle: Visual Biopolitics and the Dramaturgy of the Poland-Belarus Border Migration Crisis

Abstract

This article analyzes the 2021–22 migration crisis at the EU-Belarus border through the conceptual lens of visual biopolitics. Based on data available from the regime-run media in Belarus it demonstrates how the engineered crisis was a case of authoritarian dramaturgy relying on numerous visual representations of migrants. The carefully staged authoritarian spectacle exploits both the vulnerability and grievability of refugee life, and the regime’s role as a self-appointed sovereign exercising comprehensive biopolitical care and protection over the population of migrants stranded at the border between Belarus and Poland.