Evropa
Chiara Santoro
Italy
Artist site
Curatorial note
In some countries around the world, many people have real fears that the virus situation could be ‘hijacked’ by repressive regimes or used to further entrench control. In Chiara’s work, however, we saw a number of different interpretations. In Videocrazia we saw the corona pandemic casting a shadow over old notions of progress, the man in the suit climbing the colourful stairs that lead nowhere, a feathery cloud of money wafting beyond reach out of the frame.
In Evropa one could perhaps also see allusions to great social upheavals caused by our flawed definitions of economic ‘progress’, and an echo of earlier periods in the history of Europe where high levels of inequality in the concentration of resources and power contributed uncertain futures for the next generation, and eventually revolution. Corona virus revealed how fragile our civilisations are, and the madness of having such long supply lines that global capitalism encourages – masks and other key products produced on the other side of the world. The hungry children in the foreground could easily become our own, of our grandchildren, if our societies do not operate within the limits of carbon budgets and planetary boundaries, and if resources are not distributed more fairly through measures such as maximum income and universal basic income.
Share
Contacts
If you are an organisation or NGO seeking our help as creative catalyst to think differently about your environmental campaign strategies, to devise and deliver creative thinking workshops and trainings for your staff, or if you are interested in exposing our touring exhibition Hidden Paths, please contact David by email.
If you are an artist, creative, or change maker generally interested in joining the Swarm collective or finding out more about what we do and would like to do, please fill in the below mail form below and one of our team will get back to you in a week or two. Alternatively, follow and ping us on facebook or twitter.
If you want to help spread the word and make the swarm grow with a donation, please click here