Bridges are Beautiful is a research project that takes the Natura 2000 network as a reference for researching the place that human beings occupy within nature. This network is a series of ecological corridors promoted by the European Union, created to preserve fauna, flora and biodiversity. It is a transnational communication system that goes beyond the border policies of each state, and puts ecological logic first. Bridges are some of the most important infrastructures in the network, since they make it easier for animals to overcome architectural barriers such as motorways and roads. At the same time, multiple fences and security cameras monitor and follow their movements, casting doubt on their apparent freedom of movement. The series includes landscape views of natural spaces and photographs of viaducts and other constructions, as well as snapshots of animals captured by surveillance cameras installed by researchers.
Marina Caneve’s work explores the tensions that emerge from the power that human beings try to exert over nature. To do so, she analyses the contradictory relationships between infrastructure construction, policies and freedom of movement, and nature conservation.
Marina Caneve was born in Italy in 1988. Her work was exhibited internationally and she was commissioned photographic projects for institutions such as MUFOCO, MiBACT, ICCD, National Mountain Museum, as well as for private clients. Marina combines her artistic practice with teaching at Master IUAV in Photography and Spazio Labò. She is co-founder of CALAMITA/À a multidisciplinary platform exploring the attractive nature of catastrophes in society and in the environment, and, since 2020, member of MAPS. Her recent photobook Are they Rocks or Clouds? has won numerous awards including the Giovane Fotografia Italiana Award at Fotografia Europea Reggio Emilia, the Dummy Award at Cortona On The Move, the Bastianelli Award and was nominated for the Prix du livre des Rencontres d’Arles. Her major publications include Are they Rocks or Clouds? (Fw:Books), Di roccia, fuochi e avventure sotterranee (Quodlibet/Ghella), The Valley Between Peaks and Stars (Quodlibet), and The Shape of Water Vanishes in Water (A+Mbookstore).
Promoted by the Begihandi collective, GETXOPHOTO is a festival dedicated to image that takes place in Getxo (Basque Country) during September for the last 14 years. It brings different proposals from photographers and visual storytellers from all over the world to the city, setting a contemporary conversation about the theme proposed each year.
GETXOPHOTO inhabits the public space and continues supporting the use of formats, stands and unconventional exhibition spaces to show the different images. This is a thematic festival that every three years works together with a different curator who understands the photography as a tool of knowledge, communication, and of course artistic enjoyment. Exhibitions, installations, projections, collaborations, experimental laboratories and many activities complete the program of the Festival.
Jon Uriarte is the curator of GETXOPHOTO 2021.