NEWS HUB

Tracing the Human Footprint

By Austin Price
Earth Island Journal

In the late 1960s, a teenage Edward Burtynsky began discovering the rhythms of nature during family fishing trips to Ontario’s Haliburton Highlands. On glistening lakes surrounded by birch and pine, Burtynsky cast his lures for muskies, a pike common in the Great Lakes region, but he returned home with something more substantial.

“That experience of wilderness left an enduring mark that still informs my response to landscape,” Burtynsky, now a world-renowned photographer, writes in his latest book Anthropocene.

As a photographer, however, it isn’t just the wilderness that captures his eye. After those fishing trips, he would return to his hometown of St. Catharines, Ontario, a town near Niagara Falls where, at the time, General Motors factories employed most of the area’s population. That tension — between a wild landscape and one controlled and manufactured — defines the core of Burtynsky’s work.

Read the full article here.

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Earth Day: Anthropocene

By Mathieu Sly
NGC Magazine

This year 22 April is both Earth Day and Throw Back Thursday, so it is an ideal opportunity to reflect back upon a powerful exhibition presented at the National Gallery of Canada in 2018: Anthropocene. When I came to see the exhibition, it was as a visitor and I had not done any research, showing up instead with the approach “What are we doing today?” I was immediately confronted with images of a world seen from above, and this world was being consumed by our appetites – by my appetites. Although these images clearly left an imprint on my mind, I all too quickly slid back into the distractions of normal life. That is, until our current global health crisis.

Anthropocene presented works by the collective of Canadian artists comprising photographer Edward Burtynsky and filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier. These striking images, videos and augmented-reality sculptures invited reflection on the ethics of humanity’s exploitation of Earth’s resources. As the exhibition’s co-curator Sophie Hackett commented, we were “confronted with a world we inhabit but cannot easily see.” The artists captured it in such a way that we could see. And how could the viewer not pause when looking at these images?

Read the full article here.

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These Eye-Opening Photos Show The Impact Of Humans On The Environment

By Kate Bubacz
BuzzFeed News

Edward Burtynsky, a legendary landscape photographer, has spent the past three decades looking at how resources are used and the impact of humans on the environment around the globe. He collaborated with Nicholas de Pencier and Jennifer Baichwal on his newest project, Anthropocene, which combines scientific research with film, virtual reality, augmented reality, and photographs, and is also available as a book.

The photographs from the project are both haunting and eye-opening, offering a unique perspective on the collective result of decisions around the globe. "I have come to think of my preoccupation with the Anthrocepene — the indelible marks left by humankind on the geological face of our planet — as a conceptual extension of my first and most fundamental interests as a photographer" he says in the book's introduction.

Read the interview here.

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A Terrible Beauty: Art and Learning in the Anthropocene

By Shiralee Hudson Hill
Journal of Museum Education

ABSTRACT

Art has the power to activate learning and emotion in unique ways—this is true of humans generally, and museum visitors specifically. Yet art galleries are often overlooked in the museum field as forums for dialogue and sites of learning about climate change. This article investigates the significance of artist-led projects and art museum exhibitions in engaging visitors with issues of climate change and greater planetary change through the lens of the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Anthropocene exhibition featuring the work of Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier and the related Anthropocene Project by the same trio of artists.

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Photographs of the changing environment: Anthropocene, over 150 thousand visitors in Bologna

la Repubblica

The exhibition at the Mast was also visited by 15 thousand students

BOLOGNA - It was supposed to remain open for 4 months, it closed on January 5 after eight months of extraordinary turnout. Anthropocene, the exhibition of photographs on the changing environment hosted by the Mast of Bologna, since May 16 has been visited by 155 thousand people, impressed by the project of the international group of scientists Anthropocene Working Group which has documented the changes that man has imprinted on earth and the effects of human activities on natural processes through the combination of art, cinema, augmented reality and scientific research.

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[PRESS RELEASE] The Anthropocene Education Program

Art-inspired program uses high tech to raise awareness of the planet's environmental stress points and encourage sustainable actions in the face of a plastics crisis

OTTAWA, Nov. 13, 2019 /CNW/ - Many students are unaware that common, everyday activities place a demand on the natural world: from buying and consuming food, to throwing out plastic waste in the trash, to purchasing fast fashion clothing containing hidden plastics, and more. As concerns mount about the impacts of a growing human population, coupled with the increasing amount of land set aside for dumping sites, students need to learn now more than ever how their lifestyle choices have the ability to change the world they live in. To support this environmental learning, The Anthropocene Project (TAP), and Canadian Geographic Education (Can Geo Education), have partnered to create a travelling, classroom-focused educational initiative called the Anthropocene Education Program (AEP). The Program will explore the complex issues of plastic consumption, waste and pollution, land use management, species extinction and climate change.

Read the full press release here.

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This Stunning Exhibition Examines Humankind’s Impact on Earth

Anthropocene, a radical multisensory media exhibit, runs through January 5 at MAST Foundation.

By Gabriella Golenda
Metropolis Magazine

In the exhibition Anthropocene, there are aerial photos of a snow-dusted open-pit coal mine in Wyoming, a sawmill cutting its way through deteriorating lowland rainforests of Nigeria, and heliostat mirrors in a sublime formation at a solar plant in Spain. Sinister yet strangely beautiful, these obscure scenes lend us a view that we might not otherwise have: a vantage point to start to understand how profoundly the planet has been altered by humans.

As the story goes, Anthropocene, which opened May 16 in Bologna, Italy, is the result of a collaboration that began in 2014 with three Canadian artists: photographer Edward Burtynsky, and filmmakers Jennifer Biachwal and Nicolas de Penciler, and was first shown at the National Gallery of Canada. The trio spent the years leading up to the exhibit trying to answer a prompt now written in the introduction of the exhibition catalogue: “…how to give compelling aesthetic form to the evidence that has aggregated in the geological record through persistent and globally interconnected human activity.” This work closely follows the research of an international group of scientists, the Anthropocene Working Group, who are investigating the effect of human incursions, that, in their own words, are so immense in their scope that they will “endure geological time.”

Read the full article here.

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'Anthropocene' Documentary Shows How Humans Are Wreaking Havoc On The Planet

By Brooke Shuman
Huffington Post

“Anthropocene: The Human Epoch,” a documentary by filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and photographer Edward Burtynsky, is a nature story gone awry, a dazzling and at times nauseating document of the far-reaching, and possibly catastrophic, impact that humans have had on the planet. 

The film gets its title from the geological term “Anthropocene,” which was first coined in 2000 by atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen and ecologist Eugene Stoermer. In 2016, a group of geologists called the Anthropocene Working Group proposed that our planet has recently been so drastically altered by human activity that we are now living in a distinct geological era. (That’s why it’s called the Anthro-pocene, because humans made it.) Humans had been getting by in the Holocene epoch for 11,000 years since the last glacial age, but the Anthropocene Working Group claims that through farming, industrialization, massive excavation of minerals and the dumping of ton after ton of trash, we’ve created a new geological era. 

Read the full article here.

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Anthropocene: The Human Epoch | Inside the Documentary

Popcorn Talk

Join Frank Moran as he interviews filmmakers: Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, and Edward Burtynsky.

“Anthropocene” is defined as the current geological epoch in which humans are the primary cause of permanent planetary change. The upcoming documentary ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch is unflinching in its depiction of the destruction of the natural world, using extraordinary imagery from celebrated photographer Edward Burtynsky, who directed the film with Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier.

Watch the interview here.

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The Wonders and Terrors of Humanity’s Impact on Earth

By Laura Leavitt
Hyperallergic

Featuring stunning landscape photography, the documentary Anthropocene surveys a new era of human-driven geology.

The cult film Koyaanisqatsi, named after the Hopi idea of “life lived out of balance,” contains no dialogue, but rather scenes all over the world — of cities, nature, the tiniest industrially produced products, and the vastness of canyons. It’s experienced more as a guided meditation than a linear story. I thought of it when watching the new documentary Anthropocene: The Human Epoch. It follows the research of the Anthropocene Working Group, whose members believe that the Holocene geological epoch concluded around the middle of the 20th century. In its place is the Anthropocene, characterized by the way that humans shape Earth’s landscapes.

Read the full article here.

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Review: ‘Anthropocene: The Human Epoch’ delivers a powerful warning of a world in decline

By Robert Abele
Los Angeles Times

A movie thousands of years in the making, “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch” takes cameras to where our consumptive need has most alarmingly re-engineered the planet. It’s also, in many ways, a document of a spiritual/environmental undoing.

Filming across a dozen countries, Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky continue the visual breadth of their previously observed warning shots about the scope of progress (“Manufactured Landscapes,” “Watermark”) with a reflective tour of excavation, industry and decimation that argues we’ve already moved into a new geological epoch owned entirely by us.

Dotted with alarming facts delivered in gravely intoned voice-over by Alicia Vikander, “Anthropocene” finds the terrible awe in town-destroying terraforming projects in Germany worked by earthmovers of “Mad Max”-like magnitude, the sweeping wretchedness of a city-sized African landfill scavenged by thousands of the poor working alongside sickly looking pelicans, and what the acid-caused bleaching of coral reefs looks like via time lapse photography.

Read the full review here.

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‘Anthropocene: The Human Epoch’ Review: Global Warnings

By Ben Kenigsberg
The New York Times

“Anthropocene: The Human Epoch” puts a frightening twist on the standard nature documentary. Rather than exalting the awesome beauty of landscapes or animals, it captures alarming ways in which that beauty has been disturbed.

The movie takes its cues from the research of the Anthropocene Working Group, a team of scientists who in 2016 recommended a formal declaration of the end of Earth’s Holocene epoch, which began as many as 12,000 years ago. They argued that we are now in a new geologic phase, the Anthropocene epoch — a time when humans now change the Earth more than all the planet’s natural processes combined.

The film, part of a multidisciplinary project by Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky, hops from continent to continent to depict the scale of those disruptions, which at times have an almost science fiction quality.

Read the full review here.

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The Photographer Capturing Mankind's Impact on Planet Earth

Video by Heather Sharpe and Laura Foster
BBC News

Edward Burtynsky travels the world trying to capture striking images of humanity's impact on the planet, from the fossil-like shapes left behind by drills in a Potash mine to the luminescent colours of lithium ponds.

The Canadian photographic artist has spent 40 years focusing on large-scale human activities such as mining, quarrying, agriculture and deforestation - but he says he doesn't see himself as an environmentalist.

His latest project, Anthropocene, is a collaboration with film-makers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier, exploring the idea proposed by some scientists that a geological epoch shaped by human activity has begun.

It includes a travelling exhibition, a book and feature-length documentary, which was premiered last year in Canada and goes on theatrical release in the US next week.

Watch the video here.

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This stunning new film captures how humans have reshaped every part of the Earth

By Eillie Anzilotti
Fast Company

The new documentary Anthropocene: The Human Epoch doesn’t waste any time getting to the point: For the first minute of the film, all we see are flames. It’s mesmerizing, in a way, the same way that a fire burning in a hearth on a cold night inevitably draws our gaze. But this blaze is underpinned with a sense of horror: In the last few seconds before the scene cuts, we see that it’s burning something—it’s hard to tell what, but we know it’s important, and we know that it’s something to do with our collective future that we’re ruining.

“Anthropocene,” after all, is the proposed name for a new geological epoch that humanity has created by the changes and destruction we’ve wrought on the planet. “Humans now change the Earth and its systems more than all natural processes combined,” narrates actor Alicia Vikander at the documentary’s beginning. The film, which will be released on September 25 and which was directed by photographer Edward Burtynsky along with Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier—whose workon the same subject inspired the movie—traces the scope of human ambition and its consequences across the globe.

Read the full article here.

 

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September: 5 photographic exhibitions not to be missed in Italy

Vogue Italia

For those who have already returned to the city after the summer holidays but have no intention of stopping to travel, even if only by thinking, we would like to point out 5 photography exhibitions not to be missed. From Milan to Nuoro, passing through Genoa, Bologna and Spilimbergo, there are many proposals to learn about distant and close worlds, discover exciting stories and reflect on the health of the planet through the lens of photographic language.

BOLOGNA

Anthropocene - Mast Foundation

Until January 5, 2020

In these times when we witness powerless, poised between anger and disbelief, some questions become more and more pressing to the fires in the Amazon: what are we doing to our planet? How did we get to this point and what future awaits us? Photographs of Edward Burtynsky and movies of award-winning filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier on display at Mast Foundation in Bologna could help us find some answers.

Read the full article here.

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Kino Lorber Teams With Kanopy For Special Theatrical Run Of Climate Change Docu ‘Anthropocene: The Human Epoch’

By Dino-Ray Ramos
Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: The climate change documentary Anthropocene: The Human Epoch is just as much a visual marvel as it is a call to action. Kino Lorber is partnering with the streaming platform Kanopy to bring the feature docu to over 100 theaters nationwide on September 25 to coincide with the U.N. Climate Action Summit and Climate Week NYC in an effort to combat man-made climate change. In addition, Anthropocene will be available for streaming on Kanopy starting January 1, 2020.

From Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky, the docu is narrated by Oscar-winning actress Alicia Vikander and screened at Sundance, Berlin and the Toronto International Film Festival to critical acclaim. Taking four years to make, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch follows the research of an international body of scientists, the Anthropocene Working Group which, after nearly 10 years of research, is investigating how the Holocene Epoch gave way to the Anthropocene Epoch in the mid-twentieth century as a result of the profound and lasting changes humankind has made to the Earth. The film traverses the globe using state of the art camera techniques to document the evidence and experience of human planetary domination. At the intersection of art and science, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch witnesses a critical moment in geological history — bringing a provocative and unforgettable experience of our species’ breadth and impact.

Read the full article here.

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The Anthropocene Project at the MAST Foundation in Bologna: A Wake-up Call to Save the Planet

By Nicolò Gallio

When was the last time you felt mesmerised and guilty at the same time, while looking at a piece of art? It happened to me last Saturday more than once when I was visiting the Anthropocene exhibition at the MAST Foundation in Bologna. I knew I was going to experience an impactful show given the topics – pollution, deforestation, mining, climate change, urbanization – but did not fully realise the beauty that came across the powerful images captured by the cameras of world-renowned photographer Edward Burtynsky and award-winning directors/producers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier.

Read the full article here.

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Envisioning the Anthropocene

By Esther Hershkovits
Good Trouble Magazine

Over the last five years, three visual artists documented the staggering state of our current geological epoch - ‘The Anthropocene’ - collaborating with a research team of scientists to investigate our indelible signature on the planet.

The Anthropocene Project is a multidisciplinary body of work from world-renowned artists Nicholas de Pencier, Edward Burtynsky and Jennifer Baichwal. Through September 22, 2019, Fondazione MAST showcases their collaborative work. Good Trouble spoke to one of the artists, Edward Burtynsky, about the philosophy of the project/exhibit and its implications for the future.

How do you define the Anthropocene?

As part of the Anthropocene book, we wrote a glossary of terms that we had approved by the Anthropocene Working Group. “Anthropocene” is defined as follows: the proposed current geological epoch, at present informal, in which humans are the primary cause of permanent planetary change.

“Our mission would be to evangelize the word ‘Anthropocene’, raise awareness for the issues it presented, and bring both the word and its implications forward in people’s consciousness.”

When did you first hear about the term “Anthropocene” and what was your initial reaction? 

We have been aware of the word and concept for well over a decade, and it was when we were wrapping up Watermark that Jennifer suggested that this is what we should title our next project. I wondered if a project titled with an unfamiliar term could be successful. It was then that we decided our mission would be to evangelize the word Anthropocene, raise awareness for the issues it presented, and bring both the word and its implications forward in people’s consciousness.

Read the full interview here.

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Oh Dear: Photos Show What Humans Have Done To The Planet

By Jonathan Lambert and Rebecca Ellis
NPR

Humans have made an indelible mark on the planet. Since the mid-20th century, we've accelerated the digging of mines, construction of dams, expansion of cities and clearing of forests for agriculture — activity that will be visible in the geological record for eons to come.

Some scientists are calling it the Anthropocene era, or the age of the humans ("anthropos" is Greek for human).

Photographer Edward Burtynsky and filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier were inspired by this ongoing discussion of the debate over this new geological era. These three Canadian artists traveled to 22 countries to research and document "places of obvious, physical human incursions on the landscape," says filmmaker de Pencier.

Read the full article here.

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Anthropocene, L’impronta Umana Sulla Terra

By Daniele Del Moro
Green Planet News

Alla FONDAZIONE MAST [Manifattura di Arti, Sperimentazione e Tecnologia] di Bologna arriva in anteprima in Europa la mostra che indaga l’impatto dell’uomo sul pianeta attraverso le straordinarie immagini di Edward Burtynsky, i filmati di Jennifer Baichwal e Nicholas de Pencier e le esperienze immersive di realtà aumentata

Anthropocene, la mostra multimediale, foto, video e quant’altro, che vuole documentare la traccia umana sul nostro povero pianeta. Ci sarà da ridere? Oppure da piangere? Sarà una messa in stato di accusa col dito puntato sul famigerato bipede o forse una mano tesa tra umani pensanti che ancora hanno a cuore le sorti di Base Terra?

Di certo, la mostra Anthropocene, a ingresso gratuito, curata da Sophie Hackett, Andrea Kunard, Urs Sthael, per la prima volta in Italia, a Bologna al MAST fino al 22 settembre 2019, costituisce una seria base di riflessione per farci tutti una domanda: amiamo la vita e dunque il terreno su cui calchiamo i nostri consumati passi?

La mostra, esplorando gli effetti delle attività umane sul Pianeta, si inscrive nel progetto artistico dellaFondazione MAST che dal 2013 conduce una riflessione approfondita sul rapporto tra l’uomo e il mondo del lavoro attraverso esposizioni di fotografia [tratte dalla collezione di Fondazione MAST o provenienti da musei, archivi e raccolte private], che raccontano il settore produttivo, le comunità dei mestieri e l’occupazione in genere.

Read the full article here.

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