Prospettive

With the kind collaboration of the Burtynsky studio and Admira, Tosetti Value S.I.M. is pleased to present a selection of works chosen from amongst the Canadian photographer’s most important works.

In keeping with Money! and its study of the interaction between art and the real economy, exploration continues of a range of authorial projects that question our view of the globalized world.

For over thirty years Edward Burtynsky has focused his artistic research on the relationship between mankind and nature, documenting the transformation of the landscape “at the service” of progress.  Fascinated by the “extraordinary within the ordinary”, for each of his projects, the author researches and maps those places significant enough to be translated into emblematic images.

The works exhibited take us on a short journey through the megalomaniacal enterprises of Chinese society, to then introduce us to those who, like the great shipbreakers in Bangladesh, seem to be still stuck at the beginning of the industrial revolution.  After contemplating the” emptying” of marble quarries, which counterpoints the continual filling up of the modern city, we are shown the dramatically spectacular effects of mining for materials such as nickel, copper, uranium and oil.

The author’s projects, which touch Europe, America, Asia and Oceania, evidence the scope of his research and fascination with the “enormous scale of things that man can create in contrast with the surrounding environment”.

The strong dichotomy between form and content, the detailed, limpid beauty of the images and the dramatic extent of the individual subjects, transmit the “cognitive dissonance” of modern man, who though increasingly more aware, cannot relinquish elements of his own wellbeing. Far from wanting to arouse political or moral criticism, Burtynsky bears witness to a change, and asks us to consider its irreversibility.

“For the first time in the history of mankind, a global collective conscience is emerging. This has never happened before, and is a direct consequence of technological evolution. The planet is becoming smaller and smaller, everything becomes increasingly close and we enter more and more into relationships”.