07.11.2023 – 01.03.2024


EDWARD BURTYNSKY
AFRICAN STUDIES

On 4 November, we will open the exhibition "African Studies" by Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky. This will be the fourth solo exhibition by this internationally renowned artist since 2014. For decades, his concern for the environment has been the driving force behind his artistic work. In stunningly beautiful images, he shows us the serious marks that industry leaves on the earth. At the same time, his images often document alarming ecological disasters.

The exhibition includes work from Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, Senegal and South Africa. The photographs show bird's eye views of the mining of sulphur, coal, iron, diamonds and salt. Breathtaking images from Namibia reveal the beauty of the country's unspoilt nature.

The exhibition includes work from Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, Senegal and South Africa. The photographs show bird's eye views of the mining of sulphur, coal, iron, diamonds and salt. Breathtaking images from Namibia reveal the beauty of the country's unspoilt nature.

Artist Statement: »My interest in Africa owes its genesis to an earlier body of work that I produced about China back in 2004. For that project, and while researching several topics including the Three Gorges Dam, urban renewal, and recycling, I learned how the new Chinese factories were being created. At the time, heavy machinery was literally being unbolted from concrete floors in Europe and North America, then shipped and refastened to the floors of gigantic facilities in China. This represented a paradigm shift of industry, and it seemed obvious that China was rapidly becoming a leading manufacturer for the world. I realized even then that the African continent was poised to become the next, perhaps even the last, territory for major industrial expansion.«