Geologists are saying that we are already living in a new era on planet Earth called Anthropocenus. They say it was generated by the industrialised nations and their elites after turning Industry into the new engine that defines the whole planet´s dynamics.
The truth is that a certain critical approach to industrialization and its consequences reached relative levels of attention in most developed countries, but still, an economic model based on the uncontrolled and abusive exploitation of natural resources and excessive consumption of manufactured goods is still being taken as an example for a prosperous future in most underdeveloped countries, despite its obvious failure.
Anthropocenus or, according to sociologist Jason Moore, Capitalocenus, raised both, inequality and global warming, to previously unseen levels. On top of this, the lack ofhonest macroeconomic commitments to prevent or even try to slow down the consequences of this dynamic of excess would have effects that are hard to predict and will be probably be harder to face.
The signs are evident for the environmental decadence of our planet but still those countries located in the periphery of the system are lead into feeding the problematic with the young vigour that novelty brings. After decades of historical exploitation at all the imaginable levels by the official metropolis, Africa is now hopelessly embracing the remains of other´s mistakes becoming a target market for low quality and highly toxic products with hardly any planning made to manage the “after party”.
With this state of things we decided to approach all environmental issues as a whole, projecting what the challenges would be for the territories that are more exposed and less prepared for the consequences of this excess. We decided to visualise the effects of macro-economics into African micro-routines.
After identifying the environmental challenges at a global level we have been working on translating them into African daily domestic gestures in order to bring them back to what is locally or even individually manageable.
We can all agree that there´s always been a love and hate relation between Africa and Photography and with this project we aim to use this sensitive duo, push it to the edge, and approach a global concern about both Environment and Representation crossing fingers for the images generated to trigger the much needed and colossal mentality shift that should precede our planet´s recovery before it is too late and we wake up in the final era: Excessocenus.
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