Revolve Magazine » VIEWS

Superkilen Celebrates Diversity in Copenhagen

Revolve — Fri, 10 May 2013 09:13:49 +0000

Superkilen is a kilometer-long park situated in the Nørrebro area just north of Copenhagen’s city center. Superkilen is home to more than 60 nationalities, and is considered to be one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the Danish capital. The hope is that Superkilen can help revitalize the area by giving it a global identity and unifying its inhabitants. The park comprises 3 areas: the ‘Red Square’, the ‘Black Market’ and the ‘Green Park’. Bike lanes traverse the park, which features playgrounds as well as spaces for basketball, football, cultural activities, picnics, socializing and relaxing.

Working on Renewables

Revolve — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:46:57 +0000

Europe is the world’s leading investor in renewable energies, representing together an annual turnover of more than €137 billion and providing over 1.1 million jobs in Europe. In collaboration with the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC), Revolve launched an initiative to highlight the human dimension of renewables by showing workers on projects around Europe. Coming this summer and fall in Brussels, capital of Europe, Visualizing Energy | Renewables in Action is a photo exhibition depicting different renewable energies on different sides of large rectangular cubes. This series of images is a preview of our exhibition, giving a glimpse into where energy comes from and who is involved in the process.

Revolve is grateful to EREC and its members for their participation in this project.

Soweto: Living with Mine Waste

Revolve — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:11:45 +0000

In South Africa, mining has been a blessing and a curse, particularly for those who were drawn to work on gold mines since the late 1880’s and the uranium mines since the late 1940’s. Once the industry was established, gold and uranium fields were settled in Soweto (South Western Townships). Beyond basic health issues related to mine waste management, dealing with dust storms from the mines, tailings and dumps can cause long-term health issues, such as asthma, skin and lung problems. This series is about combating contaminated dust, exposure to radiation and the destruction of eco-systems in areas surrounding uranium mines and their respective dumping areas.

Laura Beltrán Villamizar is photo|art editor at Revolve. She grew up in Colombia and lived in Argentina and The Netherlands before moving to Brussels. To view more of her work, visit: Laura Beltrán Villamizar. For this feature on mining waste management in South Africa she worked together with Judith Taylor coordinator at Earthlife Africa.

To submit a VIEWS photo essay, please contact:

Laura Beltrán Villamizar
Photo | Art Editor
laura@revolve-magazine.com

Distant Paradise

Revolve — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:38:33 +0000

Taking as their starting point images that depict the tangible reality of man-made wastelands, Wilmes & Mascaux probe the transience (or the pretension) of a civilization whose abuse of the natural world does not speak in its favor. As part of their project, they have “scanned” the memory of chaotic landscapes in Mexico, Europe, Quebec, the U.S.A. and Australia. In margin of the world, these landscapes form entities folded up on themselves, given up, forgotten, lost, far from all, in rupture with time. Life is motionless, time stopped or temporarily suspended.

On site, surrounding sound details, descriptive narrations, video and photographic surveys have been collected. These “samples” are connected in installations. The interaction of sound, visual and narrative images create a new imaginary site. The project has been presented since 1995 in museums, galleries, video festivals, art fairs, in Belgium, Luxemburg, France, Quebec, Australia and the USA.

Wilmes & Mascaux met in Mexico City where they were living in the 1980s. Back in Brussels, where they currently work, they began their collaboration as a visual artist duo in the mid 1990s.

To order copies of the book “Distant Paradise”, Wilmes & Mascaux, ARP2 Editions, 2012, visit: www.arpeditions.org

Sponges and the Source of Life

Revolve — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 08:13:49 +0000

Sponges (Phylum Porifera) are the oldest metazoan group still existing on Earth. Apart from the commercially bath sponges well known since the Greek civilization, more than 7,000 species are currently described and new ones are regularly discovered. They have remarkably survived over Earth’s changing chemical history since the Late Cambrian (509 MYA) in all aquatic environment, from marine intertidal zones to abyssal ones as well as in freshwater.

In the 19th century, Robert Grant coined the term ‘Porifera’ for sponges that were then recognized as an independent metazoan lineage. Increasingly, sponges are studied as part of a broader enterprise attempting to detail the Tree of Life.

Sponge research has brought practical answers to fundamental biological questions such as understanding the biosynthesis of chemicals and minerals, the evolution of eukaryotic immunology, understanding physiological adaptive strategies to cope with extreme environments or even revealing the functional and phylogenetic complexity of the ‘‘microbial universe’’ associated to sponge tissues. Many of these contemporary studies were based on international multidisciplinary efforts. Brazilian sponges have gained much scientific interest in the last decades due to the large diversity of these aquatic animal species.

The Brazilian school of sponge scientists began 20 years ago in cooperation with France. Today, Rio’s natural history museum stores a collection of more than 15.000 specimens collected around South America. There are several “sponge labs” now in Brazil, including Rio, Salvador de Bahia, and Recife where young scientists regularly embark into varied research areas mainly based on taxonomy.

Many books and illustrated field guides have come out recently, including the Catalogue of Brazilian Porifera. Due to their anti-infective, anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties, sponges have also received growing attention from pharmaceutical companies for the development of new natural products.

Sponges grow in distinct shapes and colors. More types can be found in tropical regions, less in colder parts of the world oceans. Sponges are divided into four distinct classes, 25 orders, 128 families and 680 genera. There are several hundred fresh water species.

Based on fieldwork in Chile, Argentina, Peru and Brazil, Dr. Willenz, researcher at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, in Brussels, is part of an international team coordinated by Professor Eduardo Hajdu (Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro) that is pursuing an ambitious goal to inventory South American sponges. Here is an exclusive selection of underwater images of sponges to be found off the coast of Brazil.

This article appeared in the Revolve Summer 2012 country report on sustainability in Brazil, pages 26-29.

Barren Icelandic Beauty

Revolve — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 08:54:44 +0000

When one says Iceland, one thinks nature. When Marjoesjka Lavigne went to Iceland for four months, she was enamored by the levels of brightness and vividness of the Nordic landscapes. The game in between the whites of the snow and the endless shadows of greens gives the scenery beautiful textures. Lavigne contemplated such landscapes during winter and returned to Iceland to uncover its essence:

“The country turns blue at dusk in wintertime. All colors fade. Cities look like scale models seeking shelter from the weather in the shadow of the mountains.”

Ísland is a project that portrays Iceland as a country of extreme natural beauty, where colors and contrasts between brightness and blackness never come in small doses. These contrasts come in intense, beautiful and stretched lapses of time… time to stay, stare, live the scenery and get lost in oblivion.

Marjoeska Lavigne wanted to express those “dazzling moments” when time seems to stop in Iceland. Born in Belgium, Lavigne was nominated for the Photoacademy Award in The Netherlands in 2012 for her work Ísland. She has exhibited at UNSEEN in Amsterdam and at 44 Gallery in Belgium among other places. To view more of her work, visit: www.maroesjkalavigne.be

To submit a VIEWS photo essay, please read the Revolve Guidelines and contact:
Laura Beltrán Villamizar
Photo | Art Editor
laura@revolve-magazine.com

Scanning the Rainforests – CAO

Revolve — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:26:41 +0000

Led by Dr. Greg Asner at the Carnegie Institution for Science, the Carnegie Airborne Observatory (CAO) is mapping the rainforests around the world by measuring biodiversity density with laser scanners attached to a twin turboprop plane (Dornier 228). The CAO combines 3D spectroscopic and laser imaging with unique scientific approaches to study, explore and conserve ecosystems at large geographic scales. The CAO has collected priceless scientific data of different remaining plant species in the Amazon, in Magadascar, Malaysia and Australia. Dr. Asner’s research has helped spawn a CAO in Ecuador (Peru and Colombia are not far behind). Colombia’s Ministry of Environment used the CAO to measure the carbon locked in the country’s rainforests. Damage to the world’s rainforests contribute to 1/5 of global green house gas emissions (more than the transport sector). The indispensable material being collected by CAO helps measure carbon emissions more accurately and thus helps advance efforts at Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degration (REDD), which would allow developed countries to offset their carbon emissions by paying developing countries to protect their forests. REDD will most certainly be on the agenda at CoP18 this year in Doha, Qatar (November 26 – December 7, 2012).

Travel through the rainforest canopy with CAO:

“Dryland Farming” in Monegros, Spain

Revolve — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 11:46:50 +0000

In 2010, Edward Burtynsky photographed agricultural areas in Spain including Monegros, a hilly,semi-desert area with extreme climatic conditions. Drawn by the organic expansion of farming areas created by successive divisions of land, Burtynsky became fascinated with the extraordinary level of visual complexity of Monegros he saw from a bird’s eye view. The resulting photographs here are part of the “Dryland Farming” in Aragon series (with one from “Olive Groves” in Jaen) and present some of his most abstract work to date.

Their rhythmic patterns and semi-figurative shapes resemble paintings by Dubuffet, Kandinsky,Picasso, Miró, Arp and Basquiat, as well as primitive art and cave paintings. Although these astonishing landscapes appear cosmic, the writhing lines, bold patches of color, texture and rendition of detail in these compositions also suggest microscopic organisms. Burtynsky is internationally renowned for his large-scale photographs of industrial landscapes. After a decade-long exploration on the subject of oil, Burtynsky is now delving into another crucial resource: water. Agriculture is a key element in this subject since 70% of global fresh-water consumption is used to produce food. Works from the Monegros series will form part of the Water project, release date Autumn 2013.

To view more of Burtynsky’s work, visit: www.edwardburtynsky.com

Oaxaca’s greener than green

Revolve — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 15:16:57 +0000

Green tourism is gaining ground in Mexico. The National Agreement for Tourism focuses on sustainable tourism and encourages environmental protection projects. In 2011, more than 7.4 million visitors travelled to 174 protected natural areas, exceeding the expected total of 6 million, according to the Mexican english newspaper, The News.

In the Sierra Norte mountain range – separating the Central Valleys of northern Oaxaca in Mexico – a community of eight remote villages called the Pueblos Mancomunados are working together to develop sustainable farming and tourist guides. These Pueblos hold the history, culture and customs of the ancient Zapotec tribes and are home of Mexico’s most beautiful well-forested highlands and most astonishing nature. The Pueblos have developed a project of eco-tourism, officially organized by Expediciones Sierra Norte where tourists are given the chance to discover, cooperate with the locals and travel along trails and paths that connect the villages. The eco-touristic project of this community provides not only a glimpse into these villages and their people, but a reminder of how we belong to nature and not the other way around.

Laura Beltrán Villamizar is Photography Editor at Revolve. She grew up in Colombia and lived in Argentina and The Netherlands before moving to Brussels. To view more of her work please visit her portfolio. For this feature on Oaxaca, she spent a week with the Zapotecs in Mexico in August 2012. To submit a photo essay idea for the VIEWS section or samples of your photography for other features, please contact Laura directly by email: laura@revolve-magazine.com or by phone: +32 (0)484 645 519.

The Coal Fires of Jharia

Revolve — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 06:57:06 +0000

In Jharia, in the Jharkhand state of eastern India, coal mining, scavenging and picking plays an overwhelming role in the lives of 600,000 inhabitants. Once abundant woodlands, Jharia is now an apocalyptic landscape of contaminated soil, water and air. Coal seam fires spew around 1.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year into the atmosphere making India the fourth largest global producer of greenhouse gas. Opened in 1896, the Jharia underground mines were nationalized in 1973 and operated by Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) which decided to opt for more profitable opencast mining. Extracted quantities of coal are significantly higher than in deep mining and cost less. They are also mostly illegally, since in 97% of cases no licences are granted. Apart from the toxic health hazards, instead of putting out the fires, the massive resettlement project – the Jharia Action Plan (JAP) – is moving inhabitants to a new town called Belgaria where there are no schools, no shops, and no jobs. Many decide to stay in Jharia, despite the fires and fumes, to mine coal.

Isabell Zipfel (b. 1969) grew up in Rome and now lives in Berlin. Before embarking on her career as a photographer, she translated screenplays and earned a Master’s degree in German studies and Italian literature. She visited Jharia for this feature in 2011. To view more of her work, visit: www.isabell-zipfel.photoshelter.com