Drowning World. Multimedia exhibition by Gideon Mendel
"Drowning World", Gideon Mendel's multimedia exhibition runs until Thursday, 5th September 2024, at the Palazzo del Rettorato's Courtyard (Via Verdi, 8 - Turin).
The exhibition, produced by UniVerso, presents a project by South African photographer Gideon Mendel.
After chronicling the final years of apartheid in South Africa, Gideon Mendel widens his gaze to the dramatic and global consequences of the climate crisis. Since 2007, he has travelled extensively to chronicle the effects of flooding in different areas of the world, resulting in Drowning World, an extensive documentation work that recounts the human experience of a climate catastrophe that now transcends all geographical, cultural and economic boundaries.
In the vast body of work produced over a period of more than fifteen years, the Submerged Portraits stand out, the incisive series of shots featuring flood victims caught in the moment of stasis after the disaster - in a sort of limbo created by waiting for the water to drain away - and of which the exhibition presents a selection of ten photographs reproduced in large format.
From Brazil to Nigeria, from the United States to Thailand, through Pakistan, India and Great Britain, Drowning World's shots make no distinction between the victims, just as the floods do: men and women, from different origins and walks of life, stand still in front of the camera and stare into the lens, distracting attention for a moment from their flooded homes and the devastation that surrounds them. If their poses are seemingly conventional, the context is dramatic and their gaze disorienting. In their encounter with the camera, they are not helpless victims, but active subjects who directly invite us to witness their misfortune.
The exhibition continues inside the UniVerso Gallery with a video installation by the artist consisting of three works: A Song for the Forest, Proof and Portents, No More.
The exhibition is staged on the occasion of the 27th edition of the Festival CinemAmbiente, the international film festival organised by the National Cinema Museum with the aim of presenting the best environmental films and documentaries of the year.