WEDNESDAY 5 JUNE
PALAZZO DEL RETTORATO
6:00 PM
For the third consecutive year, the CinemAmbiente Film Festival and the University of Turin will jointly hold a photography exhibition in the courtyard of the university rectorate.
The exhibition is produced by UniVerso. On show will be photographs by South African photographer Gideon Mendel who documented apartheid in its final years, AIDS, and the dramatic consequences of climate crisis. Since 2007 he has traveled to photograph the effects of flooding in 13 countries. Published in National Geographic magazine, Geo, and the Guardian’s Weekend magazine, the documentation entitled “Drowning World” captures from diverse perspectives the human experience of climate crisis which knows no geographic, cultural or economic borders.
Within the vast corpus over 15 years in the making, the series entitled “Submerged Portraits” depicts flood victims in the immediate aftermath of disaster – caught in a kind of limbo while waiting for the floodwaters to recede. Ten large format photographs (nearly 5 meters in height) from this series will be on display.
Drowning World shows photographs taken in Brazil, Nigeria, the United States, Pakistan, India, the United Kingdon, and Thailand. The floods make no distinction between men and women of color, ethnic origin or social class. All look into the camera lens with no thought for the moment of the personal loss and the devastation surrounding them. Their pose may appear conventional, but the catastrophic context and their fixed gaze surprise the viewer. Standing before the camera, they do not figure as helpless victims but rather invite viewers to witness their circumstances.
The exhibition will be inaugurated on 5 June at 18.00 and will continue through 5 September. Accompanying the exhibition are three videos Mendel made (Proof and Portents, No More, A Song for the Forest), which will be shown in the Galleria UniVerso in the courtyard of the university rectorate.
