'Landscapes framed. European photographic missions, 1984-2019 ' Exhibition at the ICO museum

This photographic compilation the ICO museum tries to make people reflect on the transformation of the landscape from the photographer's eye. In these photographs, the different social changes, such as mine closure, urban growth or the abandonment of crops, were translated into the modification of the European landscape.

The exhibition brings together eight long-lasting photographic proposals carried out in Europe from 1984 to 2019. The exhibition shows the work of almost sixty photographers, accompanied by the numerous publications that were published in the context of the selected missions: Mission photographique de la DATAR (France), Mission photographique Transmanche (France), Linea di Confine per la Fotografia Contemporanea (Italy), Ekodok-90 (Sweden), Fotografie und Gedächtnis [Photography and memory] (Germany), Long-term photographic observation of Schlieren (Switzerland) ), RO_Archive (Romania) and Places. Denmark in transition (Denmark).

These research have in common the reflection on the landscape in transformation through the work of the photographers, although they differ a lot in the way of doing it. When the photographer has carte blanche, he can interpret the landscape with complete freedom. 

The major transformations of the European landscape during the 1970s and 1980s were largely due to the decline of heavy industry and the closure of mines. On the other hand, the rapid growth of the service economy and mass tourism, and the increase in mobility in general, required significant adaptations of the landscape. Technological innovations changed traditional agriculture and, with it, also the landscape, which from then on housed other crops, and on a much larger scale.

The progressive decline of traditional agriculture resulted in a migratory flow to the big cities, while their centers were emptied and peripheral neighborhoods emerged. In many large cities, the consequence was an exponential growth of the outskirts.

The French project of the DATAR, in the eighties, was an important source of inspiration for other promoters of photographic research on the landscape. Its incidence is explained both by the ambitions and the magnitude of the project, as well as by the cast of photographers selected to participate in it. The DATAR was a special initiative of an official agency whose objective was the planning of the territory. The planning of the photographic research responded, among other things, to the awareness that future changes in the French landscape would have drastic consequences for a significant number of people.