‘Xenia’ is a combination of recent and past portraits that Arian Christiaens made of her sister. Christiaens uses the act of making portraits as an attempt to communicate and understand her sister’s personality. ‘Xenia’ handles the search for identity and how people struggle with fitting in society. Next to this search for identity, Christiaens also addresses the limitations of portraiture and the inability of photography to tell the truth. What is constructed and what is real? Who is Xenia as a character and what does she express? The fear to exist, to (not) feel at ease in your own body and environment, the complexity of ones personality are themes that Christiaens deals with in a publication that floats between a photographic documentary and a (staged) story.

Nominated for the Arles Photobook Prize 2019 (FR).