Photography and Sustainability

The new event series Photography and Sustainability consists of eight events taking place from 4 to 19 May 2022. It provides insights from different perspectives in which ways aspects and issues of ecological and social sustainability are visible, discussed, negotiated and tested in photography and visual culture. The event series Photography and Sustainability is a collaboration between the Heinrich Böll Foundation Baden-Württemberg, the Heinrich Böll Foundation Rhineland-Palatinate, the Institute for European Art History at Heidelberg University and the Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie.

Małgorzata Stankiewicz, Baltic Algal Bloom B2, modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019) processed by ESA, 2022, from the series Viriditas XXI. The artist works with satellite images from ESA. She shows that the anthropogenically caused algal bloom in the Baltic Sea, which creates veritable death zones, is visible even from space.

Wed 04/05 2-5 p.m.

Use of images in the media

Workshop

Images and especially photographs are powerful communication tools for politically and socially relevant issues. The workshop with Miriam Zlobinski (picture editor/visual historian) deals with the potentials and challenges of using photographs in picture editing. Among other things, practical knowledge of image research, analysis and selection as well as critical reflection on visiotypes – the stereotypical use of images – will be conveyed.
The format is aimed at all those who deal critically with images and their use in their professional work.
Venue: Kunsthalle Mannheim (Auditorium)

Costs: 50 Euro / 25 Euro reduced for trainees or volunteers (incl. drinks and snacks)
Registration via the event calendar of the Heinrich Böll Foundation Baden-Württemberg.
Max. 15 participants
The workshop will be held in German language.


Wed 04/05 6-7.30 p.m.

Images of the climate crisis

Talk

Photographs and moving images of extreme weather situations, drought, forest fires or melting glaciers create visual narratives of climate change.
In a discussion with Miriam Zlobinski (picture editor/visual historian), Volker Angres (author, presenter, head of the environmental editorial department of ZDF) and Henner Flohr (head of the picture editorial department of the FAZ), the work of picture editors in the context of the climate crisis will be discussed, among other things, as a form of science communication and against the background of the climate crisis.
The discussion will be moderated by Prof. Dr. Henry Keazor (Professorship of Modern and Contemporary Art History/ZEGK - Institute for European Art History at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg).
Venue: Kunsthalle Mannheim (Auditorium)

Limited number of participants
Free tickets via webshop Kunsthalle Mannheim.
The talk will be held in German language.


Mon 09/05 2-3.30 p.m.

Sustainability in artistic photography and exhibition practice

Online Talk

In their works, the photographers Silvy Crespo and Małgorzata Stankiewicz deal with anthropogenic influences on nature and the environment. In her work, Crespo illuminates, among other things, the environmental degradation associated with lithium mining in Portugal. Stankiewicz deals with the man-made increase in blue-green algae blooms in the Baltic Sea, which has far-reaching consequences for the ecosystems there. The artists will also talk with curator Iris Sikking about the possibilities, visions and challenges of sustainable photography and exhibition practice.

Online via Zoom
Free of charge
Registration
The event will be held in English.


Mon 09/05 7.30-9 p.m.

Sustainability in applied photography

Online Talk

The production of fashion and advertising photography needs a high consumption of resources. In 2020, Italian Vogue, under its then editor-in-chief Emanuele Farneti, dispensed with photo shoots altogether for one issue, setting an example for sustainability: fashion was represented by illustrations instead. Photographer Simon Veith specialises in sustainable ways of working and a visual language that can be used for as long as possible. The conversation with Farneti and Veith is about aspects of such sustainable image productions in the field of applied photography. The talk will be moderated by Prof. Dr. Henry Keazor (Chair of Modern and Contemporary Art History/ZEGK – Institute for European Art History at the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg).

Location: online via Zoom
Free of charge
Registration
The event will be held in English.


Wed 11/05 4-5.30 p.m.

Cleanup

Action

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Wed 11/05 6-7.30 p.m.

Waste Identity – Bola Bola Living

Talk

In Cooperation with Kulturamt der Stadt Mannheim and Surfrider Foundation
Baden/Pfalz

With his project Waste Identity - Bola Bola Living the Nigerian artist Aàdesokan, in whose hometown Lagos up to 10,000 tonnes of waste end up in the country's largest landfill every day, wants to inform about the waste problem as a global crisis and question our throwaway society. Together with the Surfrider Foundation Baden/Pfalz and the artist, we will organise a clean-up campaign around Friedrichsplatz, because every individual can do something.
The subsequent artist talk with Aàdesokan will provide in-depth insights into the problem of waste in the context of his work complex Waste Identity - Bola Bola Living and in exchange with the Surfriders – from multiple perspectives, locally and globally.

Meeting point Cleanup: in front of the main entrance of the Kunsthalle Mannheim (Friedrichsplatz 4), no registration necessary.

Talk: Kunsthalle Mannheim (Auditorium)
Limited number of participants
Free tickets via webshop Kunsthalle Mannheim.
The events will be held in German and English.


Tue 17/05 7-8 p.m.

Protest Images & Image Protests

Online Talk

The Archive of Public Protests (APP) collects and disseminates photos of protest movements in Poland that have increased since 2015 with the rise of the PiS party. In the form of an online image archive as well as via Instagram, the collective campaigns for the visibility of e.g. women's strikes and protests against climate change. As strike newspapers, they bring the visual material back to the ongoing protests.
The discussion with photographers Karolina Gembara (APP) and Rafał Milach (APP) and Katarzyna Pabijanek (Head of the Democracy and Human Rights Programme of the Heinrich Böll Foundation/Warsaw) will focus, among other things, on visual activism and the relevance and potential of images for social and socially sustainable change.

online via Zoom
Free of charge
Registration
The event will be held in English.


Thu 19/05 6-7.15 p.m.

Making the Anthropocene visible

Lecture

Humans have intervened so strongly in the earth's (climate)system and its cycles that they have become a geological factor. It is not only in the geosciences and natural sciences that there has long been talk of a new earth age, the Anthropocene. The earth age shaped by humans is also strongly reflected in the art sciences. The lecture by Prof. Dr. Timo Skrandies (Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf) explores the role of photography - especially documentary photography - and visual cultures in the interweaving of nature, ethics and knowledge.

Venue: Heidelberger Kunstverein (open until 8.00 p.m.)
Free of charge (plus admission: Pay What You Want)
Lecture will be held in German language.