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Urgent Arts of Living

June 20, 2019 - July 21, 2019
Kaunas - Kaunas Photography Gallery

Reality is overrepresented, and yet sometimes we lose it. Since the very first warnings of climate change at the end of the 1970s, its causes and dangers have been mostly told through facts and data. Despite the growing evidence of its presence, the concept remains intangible and, in many parts of the western world, is still not perceptible. Beyond the ecological emergency, this applies to other complex events, such as social inequality: Either they affect us directly, or we tend to ignore them. We feel immune, are addicted to our way of life and too lazy to give up some of our privileges for the good of the planet we live on. Are we reaching a point of no return? How can we communicate this urgency? How can we, within society, help it move towards an unanimous and effective response?

Humans think in symbols. The arts can foster behavior change and engagement, because they move us on a visceral, more human level in a way that facts simply cannot. This exhibition, featuring work by Marie Lukasiewicz, Fábio Cunha and Ana Zibelnik, reclaims metaphors as valid figures in our photographic language with a great capacity to shift deep-rooted mental conceptions.

We need an imagery that affects us critically, that makes as question reality, that drives us into action. Urgent Arts of Living aims to create a space where both artists and audience can imaginatively and critically engage in constructive debate about the ecological and social crisis that surrounds us today. The series of photographs compiled in this book exemplifies an emerging form of narrative where images are seen “not as objective representations of reality, but as little arguments.”* These introduce us to immediate ways of experiencing and understanding our role in nature, and our relationship with both natural and social resources. We might discover a better life than what we know now.

*Max Pinckers, quoted from Matthew Ponsford, “Max Pinckers tracks the Margins of Excess between truth and fiction”, in: British Journal of Photography, July 2018, p. 67.

 

Cale Garrido

Date
June 20, 2019 - July 21, 2019
Event Category
Address
Kaunas, Lithuania