Jaar, Alfredo, Antoniou, Klitsa, Ressler, Oliver, Cahen, Robert, O’Malley, Niamh, Tsitsopoulos, Filippos, Hobbs, James and et., al. (2024) Black Sun at Carbon Tierra Biennale. [Show/Exhibition]

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Abstract

Black Sun is 16mm black and white film installation, where the work’s visual imagery directs a pensive and concentrated gaze at the sun itself, forming a type of melancholic and abstract environment. The notion of staring at the sun has been linked throughout history with ideas of insanity, mortality, and depression, as such this act describes the desire to overcome rational thinking and to lose one’s self in a temporal paralysis of vision and mind. Shot in various locations, including Death Valley, where the sun plays a dominate role, the film (and filmmaker) takes this act of staring quite literally, capturing the sun’s strength and enigmatic beauty through a 16mm camera as it burns its image onto the film. While the gaze of the film is often upwards, the grounding sites/locations here are desolate places where mining and human activity is now mostly muted, moving away from the portrayal of a locational identity and replacing “place” with a psychological state created by the sun and its effects. Rie Nakajima has composed a sound work in response to the film, where the audio acts not as a soundtrack, but rather as an additional presence within the film and space. A version of this work was shown as part of Carbon Tierra Biennale: Ptolemaida City, throughout its historical trajectory from the latter part of the 20th century to the present, has been associated with coal mining and the establishment of steam power plants for electricity generation. The region's mines testify to the largest mining activity of the Balkan Peninsula and the frenzied industrial exploitation of underground wealth resulted in socio-economic and political distortions. With the violent advent of the post-lignite period and in combination with the economic crisis of the last ten years and more, the concept of development in the region has been radically redefined. At the same time, the lasting environmental footprint of mining and industrial activities, along with the absence of compensatory policies for sustainable development, resulted in the degeneration of the landscape and the devaluation of ecological practices, on the altar of profit and energy sufficiency from land exploitation. Drawing on the work of art historian Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio, Wounded Landscapes, Tense Equilibriums, and Broken Connections: Art, Earth, and Humans (Univ. of Barcelona, 2023) the inaugural edition of the Biennale sets its sights on the Wounded Landscapes found in industrial and post-industrial communities. It focuses on the abusive practices that have been followed and allowed and how they shape and determine our relationship with the urban landscape and the natural environment.
The Carbon Tierra Biennale, by applying extensive, retrospective, creative and participatory research into mining practices and their impact, reinforces our collective identity and our intangible cultural heritage that is largely unexplored. It aims to activate and enrich cultural and artistic research and creation beyond urban centers and metropolitan areas and include peripheral locations by integrating the rural landscape into future artistic processes. It promotes initiatives for local participants and stakeholders to identify specific areas and actions suitable for reinterpretation. At the same time, it attempts, through the perspective of contemporary art and living culture, to re-envision and expand concepts such as those of advancement and social cohesion by examining the contemporary socio-economic reality. “What is this destructive force we have inside that does not show us the limits and impacts of our actions? What is preventing us from acting in a sustainable way for the future of the Earth and its current and future inhabitants?” (Mendolicchio, 2023). The Biennale pursues to raise questions, seeks to provide openings for the public to contemplate, critique, and reposition damaged landscapes and the deceptive narratives of advancement and economic expansion, redefining the price of such expectations. The Biennale looks for an interactive and dynamic connection between historical mining heritage and innovative contemporary art and artistic practice. In addition, it promotes the creation of connections with other mining communities and their environment, developing a global network of cultural exchange and dialogue. “Art can propose new tools, it can change the narrative, it can reflect on challenges from different perspectives, and it can nurture movements, but the hegemony of the exploitation system in which we live (the one that can provoke the human fatality and the planet’s catastrophe) requires a broader awareness. Surrounded by wounded landscapes, humanity must find the way to allow and accept a functioning system of co-existence. As stated by author Cal Flyn: ‘This is a corrupted world, yes – one long fallen from a state of grace – but it is a world too that knows how to live. It has a great capacity for repair, for recovery, for forgiveness – of a sort – if we can only learn to do it so.’ Switch off the light. Don’t touch. Stay silent. Leave nature alone.” (Mendolicchio, 2023).

Item Type:	Show/Exhibition
Uncontrolled Keywords:	black sun, mining, installation art, 16mm film,
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR N Fine Arts > NC Drawing Design Illustration T Technology > TR Photography
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences > Centre for Sound and Image Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences > School of Design and Creative Industries
Related URLs:	Organisation
Last Modified:	25 Nov 2025 11:17
URI:	https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/51730

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