Before the Fires [2007-2021]

Before the Fires (Fototurismo) consists of a series of photographs taken in the vicinity of some of the most popular tourist sites in the Mediterranean. However, nothing directly related to tourism has been depicted – instead of recognisable symbols, there is ordinary coastal scenery. In addition to the absence of characteristic subjects, the inverted logic of these photographs is highlighted in the specific photographic approach: Photographs are not conceived in relation to the attraction of the sites they represent, but are mainly the result of a formal strategy. The self-irony that infuses the project also refers to the long history of “on the road” artworks made in unfamiliar and exotic places.

Long relationship between photography and tourism has not changed in any significant way by technological development. The need to take a photograph in front of some famous cultural or natural site has persisted regardless of the emergence of the Internet, selfie sticks and cheap flights. The precise economic logic behind one of the largest industries relies both on romanticising travel and maintaining the appeal of middle class conventions. During the long period of work on this series, new environmental conditions brought more frequent and more devastating summer fires in all of European Mediterranean. Landscapes like the ones represented have been transformed to its own negative condition – blackened soil with burnt remains of vegetation.

These timeless sunlit scenes may be understood as a Romantic return to a time before tourism, but they might just as easily be interpreted as a chilly anticipation of an ecological catastrophe. A catastrophe in which mass tourism played its part.

[MV]

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