ROOM 17

A visual research project exploring the territory between documentary and art that contrasts the symbolic nature of nuclear semiotics with the factuality of repositories built today. It illustrates the difficulty of defining signs that must endure physically and in meaning across immense stretches of time to protect future civilisations against sites of radioactive waste.

How can we protect future generations against highly radioactive waste, such as that produced in our nuclear power plants and in medicine, research and industry? They will pose a danger to life for hundreds of thousands of years to come. Beyond technical measures to ensure secure geological repositories, this also requires novel communicative solutions: future civilisations so distant that they are beyond our wildest imagination must be warned of the dangers posed by these sites. This raises fundamental questions of an anthropological nature – about the role of language and culture in the transmission of information over extremely long periods of time, but also about the almost uncontrollable human risk factor. The Swiss photographer and artist Marcel Rickli reflects on these pressing concerns in the form of a visual research project in the field of tension between documentary photography and art. His latest work, AEON, contrasts the symbolic nature of nuclear semiotics with the factuality of repositories as they are planned and built today. The project illustrates the difficulty of defining signs that not only have a physical existence over an immensely long period of time, but whose meaning is also universal. It poses questions about the future of mankind, unites approaches from physics, futurology, anthropology and sociology and culminates in the simple and at the same time existential philosophical question: What endures?

As humans, we control our world by imposing meaning upon nature, generating the unnatural. Photography resolves the misunderstanding that the world is filled with meanings. The camera is the unnatural machine, but photography is natural by its completeness. Toyama Hiroto posits photography as the natural resisting the unnatural, exploring its potential to control nature.

As humans, we control our world by imposing meaning upon nature, generating the unnatural. Photography resolves the misunderstanding that the world is filled with meanings. The camera is the unnatural machine, but photography is natural by its completeness. Toyama Hiroto posits photography as the natural resisting the unnatural, exploring its potential to control nature.

As humans, we control our world by imposing meaning upon nature, generating the unnatural. Photography resolves the misunderstanding that the world is filled with meanings. The camera is the unnatural machine, but photography is natural by its completeness. Toyama Hiroto posits photography as the natural resisting the unnatural, exploring its potential to control nature.

A film of Conservative UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson ceaselessly and silently chanting the political mantra Stay at Home, projected onto the side of the artist’s house. Silence emphasises the act of speech and the authority of this three-word chant, as Britain entered a mass social isolation unprecedented in modern history.

Young boy bathes in the river during a hot afternoon in March.

There are about 1,500 houses in Tangia Basti.

Young girl in a state of trance during a Shamanic ceremony.

A local hunter knows his way miles deep into the forest.

A woman works on her farm. Majority of the household’s income in Tangia Basti comes from farming.

Sugar Cane fields are burned once a year as a traditional ritual believed to improve the fertility of the land.

A local villager climbs a tree to fetch wood. Sal trees surrounding the village are an important source of wood used for construction, cooking and heating.

An exploration of the complex relationship between man and nature that defines the village of Tangia Basti, South Eastern Nepal. This project protests the proposed construction of the Nijgadh international airport, confronting the potential destruction of the forest in favour of economic and social growth and its inhabitants’ uncertain future.

A collaboration with Indian schoolchildren, in which the artist shares control of the image-making process. This project explores the true nature of childhood as inquisitive and playful. It suggests these attributes are viewed as unlawful and uncontrollable by a faulty yet meticulous education system that values hyper-competitiveness and ‘success’ over individuality and curiosity.

A collaboration with Indian schoolchildren, in which the artist shares control of the image-making process. This project explores the true nature of childhood as inquisitive and playful. It suggests these attributes are viewed as unlawful and uncontrollable by a faulty yet meticulous education system that values hyper-competitiveness and ‘success’ over individuality and curiosity.

A collaboration with Indian schoolchildren, in which the artist shares control of the image-making process. This project explores the true nature of childhood as inquisitive and playful. It suggests these attributes are viewed as unlawful and uncontrollable by a faulty yet meticulous education system that values hyper-competitiveness and ‘success’ over individuality and curiosity.

A collaboration with Indian schoolchildren, in which the artist shares control of the image-making process. This project explores the true nature of childhood as inquisitive and playful. It suggests these attributes are viewed as unlawful and uncontrollable by a faulty yet meticulous education system that values hyper-competitiveness and ‘success’ over individuality and curiosity.

A collaboration with Indian schoolchildren, in which the artist shares control of the image-making process. This project explores the true nature of childhood as inquisitive and playful. It suggests these attributes are viewed as unlawful and uncontrollable by a faulty yet meticulous education system that values hyper-competitiveness and ‘success’ over individuality and curiosity.

A collaboration with Indian schoolchildren, in which the artist shares control of the image-making process. This project explores the true nature of childhood as inquisitive and playful. It suggests these attributes are viewed as unlawful and uncontrollable by a faulty yet meticulous education system that values hyper-competitiveness and ‘success’ over individuality and curiosity.

Despite nature’s helping hand, life is not easy in Tangia Basti. Winters are cold, facilities minimal, and everyone works hard to make ends meet.

Man bathes in the river. During wintertime, the water turns unexpectedly warm in the early hours, creating an ideal condition for people to bathe.

Special trees are believed to have the power to absorb the dark spirits of the forest. Fruits and flowers are being offered to the Shamanic Tree as part of a ritual.

There are 3 schools in the community of Tangia Basti.

This series is the result of research into the censorship of art books in Iran undertaken during the artist’s university study. Heja Rahiminia examines the censorship of images considered, by the Book Control Department, to break the norm, sexually incite students or contradict Islamic Sharia. Through the work the artist suggests that the marks made by the censors create the artwork by destruction.