GROUP EXHIBITION
GIFT
FELDVERSUCHE ZU LANDWIRTSCHAFT UND BIODIVERSITÄT
HEINRICH BÖLL FOUNDATION
EUROPEAN MONTH OF PHOTOGRAPHY
BERLIN
2.–31.03.2023
HEINRICH-BÖLL-STIFTUNG
SCHUMANNSTRASSE
10117 BERLIN
"Gift" originally meant "the given" or "the gift" in Old High German, before the meaning changed to the "deadly gift". The title of the exhibition, which deals artistically and documentarily with the topic of agriculture and biodiversity, refers to biological diversity as a gift that is passed on from generation to generation - and at the same time to the acute endangerment of our livelihoods.
We are currently experiencing the largest mass extinction since the dinosaurs disappeared 65 million years ago. In the new age of the Anthropocene, humans have become a planetary force that massively changes the biological, geological and atmospheric processes of the earth. Industrial agriculture plays a central role in this: It is one of the main causes of species extinction and the climate crisis, but at the same time suffers massively from the consequences.
In our media society, photography has a central role and responsibility in conveying information. It can help to enlighten, touch, provoke and initiate change. The majority of the existing images, which are supposed to convey the pressing topic of agriculture and biodiversity, revolve around a few simple and obvious motifs, which are repeated in variants and now seem clichéd and worn out. There are images of orchards, strips of flowers or monocultures stretching to the horizon; Combines in yellow fields, tractors spraying pesticides; Butterflies suckling on flowers or dead bees lying on their backs.
The aim of the exhibition project "GIFT - Field Tests on Agriculture and Biodiversity", which began in spring 2020 and in which eight students and alumni of Neue Schule für Fotografie Berlin are taking part, is to break this cycle of images through an intensive content-related and visual examination of the topic and to create new, to find surprising angles. The resulting documentary and artistic photographic works are as complex and varied as the topic itself.
The exhibition project “GIFT - Field Trials on Agriculture and Biodiversity” was created in cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Foundation, the Institute for World Food, the GLS Treuhand, Hahnemühle, the Berlin State Center for Civic Education and the Brodowin Ecovillage.
Supervisor : Eva Bertram
Project coordinator : Ines Meier
Artists:
Johann Karl, Eun Sun Cho, Linda Kerstein, Thilo Mokros, Sabrina Radeck, Caro Lenhart, Jakob Wierzba,
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