OPEN FIRE
Multimedia art | Installation
(medium-format analogue photography, intervention with fire, text, sound, video)
work in progress
What is the future of our natural sites?
What is the future of
our references,
our identities,
our memories?
Fire is a sharp weapon.
Focusing on fires that are taking place within the Brazilian territory, the majority of them criminal, 'Open Fire' embodies the violence of recent acts against natural and cultural heritage and exposes the damage they have caused, in a multi-voice narrative. The work is founded on the intertwined relationship that photography holds with its subject and its use as a safeguard for our collective memory. The work develops as follows: first, I take medium-format analogue photographs of sites of high relevance for conservation in Brazil. After being processed, the photographic film is systematically burnt – reproducing the aggression that has been openly inflicted upon the actual landscapes onto their photographic representations. After burning them, the resulting three-dimensional pieces are scanned, edited, and then juxtaposed with my thoughts and everyday experiences that relate to this issue, highlighting the context to which those images belong. As such, the multimedia online exhibition designed for the Marc Ferrez Photography Prize aims to serve as an invitation to debate pressing socioenvironmental, historical and political issues.
The multimedia show 'Open Fire' can be accessed here.
This work has the financial support of Brazil's National Arts Foundation Marc Ferrez Photography Prize.
