Foundation MAST Brings Acclaimed Anthropocene to Bologna for European Debut
The multidisciplinary Anthropocene exhibition makes its European debut at Fondazione MAST, Manifattura di Arti, Sperimentazione e Tecnologia, in Bologna on May 16th. This investigation of human influence on the state, dynamic and future of the Earth is conveyed through the extraordinary photographs of Edward Burtynsky, films by Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier and augmented reality installations. The exhibition is co-curated by Urs Stahel, MAST Photo Gallery curator, Sophie Hackett, photography curator at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto and Andrea Kunard, curator of the Canadian Photography Institute of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.
The Anthropocene project is a multimedia exploration that documents the indelible human footprint on the Earth. The project is a four-year collaboration between the world-renowned photographer Edward Burtynsky and multiple award-winning filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier. Combining art, film, augmented reality, and scientific research, the exhibition documents the ways in which humankind has changed the Earth, bearing witness to the effects of the human footprint on natural processes. The project follows the research of an international group of scientists, the Anthropocene Working Group, who are investigating whether we have left the Holocene and entered a new epoch: the Anthropocene (from the Greek, anthropos, human).
Their research shows that humans have become the single most defining force on the planet and that the evidence for this is overwhelming. Terraforming of the earth through mining, urbanization, industrialization and agriculture; the proliferation of dams and diverting of waterways; CO2 and acidification of oceans due to climate change; the pervasive presence around the globe of plastics, concrete, and other technofossils; unprecedented rates of deforestation and extinction: these human incursions - they argue - are so massive in scope that they have already entered, and will endure in geological time.
The exhibition is made up of various elements including 35 photographs by Edward Burtynsky that illustrate such examples of human impact as the mining of natural resources, deforestation, large-scale transport infrastructures, climate change, landfills and pollution.