LES CLASSES MOYENNES EN AFRIQUE
by Joan Bardeletti
In collaboration with Marie Claire, the Festival of African, Asian and Latin American Cinema presents, for the first time in Italy, in a single exhibition, three works by the photographer Joan Bardeletti: Les Classes Moyennes en Afrique, Afro Food… for Thought: Afrique du Sud and five videos which are part of the project Les Grands Moyens.
Les Classes Moyennes en Afrique is a photographic and social sciences project which lasted three years (2008-2011) which took the author together with a team of researchers from the University of Bordeaux (Sciences Po Bordeaux – Laboratoire Les Afriques dans le monde) to travel throughout Africa taking forty pictures, in Senegal, Ethiopia, the Ivory Coast, Mali, Ghana, Uganda, Mozambique and South Africa. The image of the African continent has greatly changed in recent years, going from the continent of suffering (the hopeless continent) to that of the new frontier and of rebirth. The exhibition tells of this new Africa, where abject poverty and the opulence of the very few wealthy people, live side by side, in an essentially urban context; between these two extremes, there are “those in the middle”, “neither rich nor poor”, who make the most of their wits to take a direct part in the changes underway. The photographs portray daily life, the hopes and frustrations of these numerous “invisible” people, bearers of new social, economic and political dynamics, and at the same time subjected to a permanent tension to “make both ends meet”, to improve their situation, to ensure a better future for their children and to heal the conflict between social traditions and modern life. Bardeletti’s work tells of the heterogeneity of this “middle class”, an expression which for the sake of media convenience brings together individuals with different incomes and lifestyles, which also change depending on the generation. This almost underground mass movement has different consumptions, work, homes, leisure activities, education and religious practices.
The exhibition is produced by Sciences Po Bordeaux – Laboratoire Les Afriques dans le monde, the French agency for development, the Regional Council of Aquitaine, Delegation for strategic affairs, the French Ministry of Defence and the French Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs.
http://www.classesmoyennes-afrique.org
Afro Food… for Thought: Afrique du Sud: produced by Collateral Creations, this is a fully-fledged photographic on the road in the middle class of Johannesburg, which has food as the theme running through it. Bardeletti followed some members of the South African middle class who grew up in townships and now share their time between the new residential areas, the symbol of their social ascent, and the neighbourhoods of their childhood.
http://www.collateralcreations.com/Afro-food-for-thought-Afrique-du
Les Grands Moyens: produced by Joan Bardeletti with Investisseurs & Partenaires, this is a multimedia project which investigates in five stages (Senegal, Nigeria, Benin, Mauritania and Madagascar) the universe of small and medium businesses in Africa. The project offers an original vision of the African continent through the exploration of these firms. Videos, photos and research to show how these small and medium sized African firms foster the development of the continent. The videos on the following medium-sized business can be seen at the Festival Center: CDS, Mauritania (Implements), Agrisatch, Benin (Agro-business,) IOT, Madagascar (Aquaculture) / NEST, Senegal (Health) / Wecyclers, Nigeria (Environment and recycling of material).
http://joanbardeletti.com/series-photographiques/les-grands-moyesn-senegal/
Joan Bardeletti. After a degree in engineering, since 2006 he has dedicated himself to photography, joining the participatory photo agency Picturetank. Since 2008 he has been working on a long-term project on the new Africas. In 2011 he founded Collateral Creations, a production platform which brings together art photography and sociological research. His work is regularly published in the national and international press, such as Libération, Le Monde, Jeune Afrique, Géo, Marie Claire, Newsweek, L’Espresso and Die Zeit.
#Thousandpeople
by Emanuele Timothy Costa
Seizing the differences that go unnoticed, perceiving the essence hidden in every glance, discovering that behind every single wrinkle there is a fascinating and mysterious story, full of life and passion. It is from here that Emanuele Timothy Costa’s project starts from here: to represent the beauty, the uniqueness and the value of diversity through people’s faces.
An ideal path in which each person represents a piece of a unique mosaic, almost like a brushstroke that is unrecognizable individually but with together with the others produces a unitary and perfect picture. At the very heart of #Thousandpeople are people, their souls and their gazes crystallized in a single timeless instant. From a lawyer to a tramp, from a housewife to a manager, from a child to a tourist: a magnificent journey through multi-ethnicity, the promotion of diversity, the mixture of cultures and equality.
The viewers also become unique and can experience #Thousandpeople at first hand. Costa and the staff of Tstudio.tv can take part directly in the exhibition, by being present personally with Elettra4T, a system of lights, designed and created by Timothy which allows having images without shadows that succeed in capturing and fixing the subject, extrapolating their genuine beauty. The visitors to the exhibition can therefore become an integral part of #Thousandpeople and have their portrait done on the spot, with the Elettra4T system.
Emanuele Timothy Costa. He was born in Genoa on 26th January 1977. At 26, he moved to London and started to travel: from Iraq to Kosovo, from the Balkans to Monte Carlo, from Afghanistan to Sudan, from Kuwait to Dubai. When he returned to Genoa, in 2013 he created the creative group, Tstudio.tv.
The first and most important project is #thousandpeople. The exhibition, in collaboration with Genoa City Council, was open from 17th November 2014 to 17th January 2015 in the Loggia della Mercanzia di Piazza Banchi, attracting over 20,000 visitors.
Land Grabbing or Land to Investors?
Alfredo Bini
by Gigliola Foschi
After Visa pour l’Image of Perpignan, the Brooklyn Photoville Festival and China Pingyao International Photography Festival, the work by Alfredo Bini Land Grabbing or Land to Investors? Is now presented in Milan, at the Centro Culturale San Fedele, coinciding with the Expo. The term land grabbing was introduced in 2008 by the NGO GRAIN (Genetic Resources Action International) and refers to the impressive purchase of millions of hectares of land in poor countries by multinational corporations in the agribusiness, by powerful financial groups or by foreign government agencies. Land grabbing appears as the latest version of neo-colonialism, deprives herders and small local farmers of their land, as well as entailing the cutting down of forests and the confiscation of grazing lands, soil erosion, water grabbing and the loss of biodiversity.
Alfredo Bini’s research – which has concentrated, by way of example, on Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – aims to document this complexity and problematic reality through an in-depth investigation, in which photography, accompanied by extensive explanatory texts, is fuelled by a lucid gaze to understand the causes and development of this phenomenon. His images, similar to the pieces of a puzzle, show the destruction in Ethiopia of the forests and grazing lands, to make room for greenhouses and fields for oil palms and sugar cane, then going to Dubai and Saudi Arabia where the plants grown in Ethiopia on land which has become property of the Saudis are exported.
In a case like that of land grabbing, the challenge faced by a photographer becomes subtle and difficult. There are no sensational tragic events to relate: land grabbing is a creeping and pervasive process. Perfectly aware of this difficulty, Alfredo Bini has proven to rise to the challenge, He has decided to accompany his images by specific information which allows understanding all the gravity of the phenomenon in progress. Reading and looking together, we realize that behind superficially “idyllic” agricultural situations there is the expropriation of land from defenceless communities as they do not have the necessary written documents to certify ownership of the land; the road is open to private use of water that penalizes the local populations; traditional farming, based on diversification, is destroyed, to favour a monoculture designed for export only. This is what land grabbing is – Alfredo Bini tells us: a devastating food policy based on grabbing the land that belongs to others.
Alfredo Bini is a freelance photojournalist. His work, which is published by the major international media, is often used as debating material during conferences, television programs, and festivals. It is exhibited and projected in museums, galleries, and universities. Transmigrations, a project about the journey of African migrants through the Sahara desert, won several prizes and has been exhibited worldwide in festivals and solo exhibitions. Libyan Uprising, a reportage about the first month of the Libyan Revolution, includes the very first images of the siege of Misurata published by the international press. Land Grabbing or Land to Investors? was selected for the Visa Pour l’Image in Perpignan, the China Pingyao International Photography Festival, and the Brooklyn Photoville Festival. It was recently released as a video documentary.
