On the ground among the animals
2015-2024
On the ground among the animals is a research based artistic project exploring the possibility of a “visual ecocriticism”.
With On the Ground among the Animals, Marina Caneve explores the ambiguities inherent in the dominating role played by human beings over nature and the tensions that emerge from their relationship with other animals. The artist takes her cue from an analytical study of the Natura 2000 project, the network of ecological corridors to preserve biodiversity promoted by the European Union. Caneve creates a visual link between the infrastructures connecting the wild animals, the videos generated by the monitoring systems and the nature reserve landscapes. She touches on key themes such as migration and freedom of movement, non-human animal rights, ecosystem conservation and ultimately the possibility of rethinking human beings’ role in the world.
The title of the project is taken from one of the letters written to Felice Bauer by Franz Kafka, the centenary of whose death falls this year.
— Franz Kafka, Letters to Felice, 1915
The project introduces the topic of the conflict between human desires and needs and the order of natural space. A large series of colour photographs focus on the landscape of the nature reserves, paying particular attention to the presence of animals, barriers and flow monitoring systems. In parallel, the artist starts from theoretical research to present a series of photographs responding to cultural, technical and social investigation into the topics of infrastructure, design, animals and their depiction, policies, freedom of movement and preservation of biodiversity. The visual research includes architecture built by the animals such as termite mounds. The photographic works are combined with extensive captions permitting to explore all the research made by the artist in the nine years while she developed the work.
Some of the most important infrastructures in the network are the bridges — wildlife crossing devices — which help the animals get around architectural barriers: fencing directs the paths the animals take and monitoring cameras trace their movements, calling into question their effective freedom. The bridges were photographed by Caneve on the field in several EU countries. The black-and-white images conjure up the idea of documents or a typology of architecture.
Then, taking inspiration from the footage of “camera traps” and “thermal cameras” set up by the researchers to document and monitor the animals on the bridges, Marina Caneve has created a three-channel video installation (loop), whose animal and human presence suggests that we reflect on contemporary migration policies, surveillance and intrusive images. The videos are accompanied by an original sound track composed by Renato Rinaldi, inspired by Kafka’s short stories as “Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk”, sounds from nature, and deterrence sounds to keep animals away from danger.
The project includes a homage to writer Vitaliano Trevisan and a triptych of images with a passage taken from his I quindicimila passi (The Fifteen-thousand steps), introducing the topic of the conflict between human desires and needs and the order of natural space.
The project comes also with a book designed by Hans Gremmen an published by Fw:Book. It is a is a 288 pages book with images by Caneve and texts by Taco Hidde Bakker, James Bridle, Daniele De Luigi, Gian Piero Frassinelli, Serenella Iovino, Hélène Soubelet, Vitaliano Trevisan, 2050+.
The project is supported by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture under the Italian Council program (12th edition, 2023), which aims to promote Italian contemporary art worldwide. The project, curated by Daniele De Luigi, is supported by FMAV - Fondazione Modena Arti Visive in collaboration with UGM Umetnostna galerija Maribor. Project partners include CAP - Centre d’Art Contemporaine, Saint-Fons (France), Fotodok, Utrecht (The Netherlands), FOMU - Fotomuseum Antwerp (Belgium), FRB - Foundation for Biodiversity Research, Paris (France), Fw:Books, La Triennale, Milano and Ghella.
Exhibitions
On the ground among the animals, CAP Saint-Fons, curated by Alessandra Prandin (2024, fr) (upcoming)
On the ground among the animals, solo booth in the Emergence sector curated by Anna Planas, Paris Photo, Montrasio Arte (2024, fr)
On the ground among the animals, BDC – Bonanni Del Rio Catalog, Fragile, Colonne28, curated by Daniele De Luigi (2024, it)
On the ground among the animals, IIC Prague, curated by Daniele De Luigi (2024, cz)
On the ground among the animals, FMAV - Fondazione Modena Arti Visive, solo show, curated by Daniele De Luigi (2024, it)
On the ground among the animals, UGM Umetnostna galerija Maribor, solo show, curated by Daniele De Luigi (2024, it)
Eyes on tomorrow, Giovane Fotografia Italiana nel Mondo, curated by Ilaria Campioli and Daniele De Luigi, Algeri (2022, dz)
’Nature Future’, curated by Collectif Fetart, Prague, Berlin, Stuttgart (2022, cz, de)
GETXOPHOTO ‘To Share’, curated by Jon Uriarte, Getxo (2021, es)
Awards
Italian Council, Ministry of Culture (2023, it)
C/O Berlin Talent Award, shortlisted (2021, de)
Gabriele Basilico - Prize in Architecture and Landscape Photography, shortlisted (2019, it)
Docking Station, Artist residency, Amsterdam (2018, nl)
Selected writings
Marina Caneve, Ponti, migrazioni, una sola terra | Bridges, Migrations, One Land, in Esili e esodi | Exiles and Exoduses, «Vesper» No. 4, 2021
2015-2024
On the ground among the animals is a research based artistic project exploring the possibility of a “visual ecocriticism”.
With On the Ground among the Animals, Marina Caneve explores the ambiguities inherent in the dominating role played by human beings over nature and the tensions that emerge from their relationship with other animals. The artist takes her cue from an analytical study of the Natura 2000 project, the network of ecological corridors to preserve biodiversity promoted by the European Union. Caneve creates a visual link between the infrastructures connecting the wild animals, the videos generated by the monitoring systems and the nature reserve landscapes. She touches on key themes such as migration and freedom of movement, non-human animal rights, ecosystem conservation and ultimately the possibility of rethinking human beings’ role in the world.
The title of the project is taken from one of the letters written to Felice Bauer by Franz Kafka, the centenary of whose death falls this year.
However, I do want to interpret your dream. Had you
not been lying on the ground among the animals, you
would have been unable to see the sky and the stars
and wouldn’t have been set free. Perhaps you wouldn’t
have survived the terror of standing upright.
— Franz Kafka, Letters to Felice, 1915
The project introduces the topic of the conflict between human desires and needs and the order of natural space. A large series of colour photographs focus on the landscape of the nature reserves, paying particular attention to the presence of animals, barriers and flow monitoring systems. In parallel, the artist starts from theoretical research to present a series of photographs responding to cultural, technical and social investigation into the topics of infrastructure, design, animals and their depiction, policies, freedom of movement and preservation of biodiversity. The visual research includes architecture built by the animals such as termite mounds. The photographic works are combined with extensive captions permitting to explore all the research made by the artist in the nine years while she developed the work.
Some of the most important infrastructures in the network are the bridges — wildlife crossing devices — which help the animals get around architectural barriers: fencing directs the paths the animals take and monitoring cameras trace their movements, calling into question their effective freedom. The bridges were photographed by Caneve on the field in several EU countries. The black-and-white images conjure up the idea of documents or a typology of architecture.
Then, taking inspiration from the footage of “camera traps” and “thermal cameras” set up by the researchers to document and monitor the animals on the bridges, Marina Caneve has created a three-channel video installation (loop), whose animal and human presence suggests that we reflect on contemporary migration policies, surveillance and intrusive images. The videos are accompanied by an original sound track composed by Renato Rinaldi, inspired by Kafka’s short stories as “Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk”, sounds from nature, and deterrence sounds to keep animals away from danger.
The project includes a homage to writer Vitaliano Trevisan and a triptych of images with a passage taken from his I quindicimila passi (The Fifteen-thousand steps), introducing the topic of the conflict between human desires and needs and the order of natural space.
The project comes also with a book designed by Hans Gremmen an published by Fw:Book. It is a is a 288 pages book with images by Caneve and texts by Taco Hidde Bakker, James Bridle, Daniele De Luigi, Gian Piero Frassinelli, Serenella Iovino, Hélène Soubelet, Vitaliano Trevisan, 2050+.
The project is supported by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture under the Italian Council program (12th edition, 2023), which aims to promote Italian contemporary art worldwide. The project, curated by Daniele De Luigi, is supported by FMAV - Fondazione Modena Arti Visive in collaboration with UGM Umetnostna galerija Maribor. Project partners include CAP - Centre d’Art Contemporaine, Saint-Fons (France), Fotodok, Utrecht (The Netherlands), FOMU - Fotomuseum Antwerp (Belgium), FRB - Foundation for Biodiversity Research, Paris (France), Fw:Books, La Triennale, Milano and Ghella.
Exhibitions
On the ground among the animals, CAP Saint-Fons, curated by Alessandra Prandin (2024, fr) (upcoming)
On the ground among the animals, solo booth in the Emergence sector curated by Anna Planas, Paris Photo, Montrasio Arte (2024, fr)
On the ground among the animals, BDC – Bonanni Del Rio Catalog, Fragile, Colonne28, curated by Daniele De Luigi (2024, it)
On the ground among the animals, IIC Prague, curated by Daniele De Luigi (2024, cz)
On the ground among the animals, FMAV - Fondazione Modena Arti Visive, solo show, curated by Daniele De Luigi (2024, it)
On the ground among the animals, UGM Umetnostna galerija Maribor, solo show, curated by Daniele De Luigi (2024, it)
Eyes on tomorrow, Giovane Fotografia Italiana nel Mondo, curated by Ilaria Campioli and Daniele De Luigi, Algeri (2022, dz)
’Nature Future’, curated by Collectif Fetart, Prague, Berlin, Stuttgart (2022, cz, de)
GETXOPHOTO ‘To Share’, curated by Jon Uriarte, Getxo (2021, es)
Awards
Italian Council, Ministry of Culture (2023, it)
C/O Berlin Talent Award, shortlisted (2021, de)
Gabriele Basilico - Prize in Architecture and Landscape Photography, shortlisted (2019, it)
Docking Station, Artist residency, Amsterdam (2018, nl)
Selected writings
Marina Caneve, Ponti, migrazioni, una sola terra | Bridges, Migrations, One Land, in Esili e esodi | Exiles and Exoduses, «Vesper» No. 4, 2021