Visual Order and SuperCity - Urban Trend: Toxic Neighborhood

Описание: Visual Order (Nii Obodai and, Nyani Quarmyne)
Accra, Ghana
SuperCity ([Barbara Roosen and, Ana Beja da Costa)]
Brussels
Urban Trend: Toxic Neighborhood
Negotiating Space: Old Fadama, 2013
9 min., 10 sec.

Learn more about Toxic Neighborhood on 100urbantrends.org: http://www.bmwguggenheimlab.org/100ur...

This video was commissioned as part of Participatory City: 100 Urban Trends from the BMW Guggenheim Lab, on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum from October 11, 2013 - Jan 5, 2014. Learn more at http://www.guggenheim.org/100urbantrends.

Bio:
Existing in the space between fine art and documentary photography, Visual Order's main objective is to create photography that dignifies humanity and applies a holistic approach toward communities. Since their founding in 2012, they have executed projects in Ghana and Brussels. Visual Order and SuperCity previously worked together on Heyvaert: An Island (2012) a socio-spatial portrait of a neighborhood in Brussels, drawn from the stories of its residents. Visual Order comprises photographers Nii Obodai and Nyani Quarmyne, and activist Hannah Curtis.

SuperCity (barbararoosen.be) is a professional platform for research and design in the fields of landscape architecture and urbanism. Through projects, research, exhibitions, and conferences, SuperCity aims to contribute to the debate on contemporary urban questions concerning progressive social segregation and the environmental crisis. SuperCity was founded in Brussels in 2010 by Ana Beja da Costa, Barbara Roosen, and Sabina Favaro.

Nii Obodai (niiobodai.wordpress.com/about) is a photographer born in Accra. His work explores the relationship between urban and rural culture. In particular, he focuses on the Farafina, or "land of the black skin," capturing the contrasts of tradition and contemporary living, diaspora and home, and divergent religions within the stunning African landscape. Obodai has exhibited widely at institutions, including Noorderlicht Fotomanifestatie, Groningen, Netherlands (2013); Chobi Mela, Dhaka, Bangladesh (2011); Studio Kurtycz, Accra (2011); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2011); New York University (2010); and the Alliance Française, Accra (2009) .

Nyani Quarmyne (nqphotography.com) is an award-winning photographer and visual activist based in Accra. His work centers on humanitarian and social justice themes such as climate change, mental health, and refugee issues. Quarmyne has photographed for international organizations such as Médecins Sans Frontières, UNICEF, and Save the Children. His images have appeared internationally in the Independent, the Guardian, the New York Times, Le Monde, and Marie Claire.

Barbara Roosen (www.barbararoosen.be) is a Belgian architect based in Brussels. Roosen studied architecture and urban researche at the Sint-Lucas School of Architecture Brussels and received an MA from the University of Leuven (2009), where her thesis was based on urban research of the settlement-landscape dialogue in Ghana. She worked with Stéphane Beel Architects (Belgium) and MVRDV (the Netherlands). She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Hasselt, studying urban sprawl in Flanders and investigating the potential of the garden and the plot.

Ana Beja da Costa is a landscape architect currently based in Lisbon. She studied landscape architecture at the Instituto Superior de Agronomia, in Lisbon (2005) and received an MA from the University of Leuven (2008). She worked as a landscape architect at Inside Outside | Petra Blaisse, in Amsterdam.

Statement:
The Odaw River's hydrological basin overlaps with a large area of Ghana's capital, Accra, and serves as a de facto waste collection conduit, carrying the city's waste into the Korle Lagoon and the Atlantic Ocean beyond. Old Fadama is a slum of over 80,000 people that borders the Korle Lagoon. Due to the absence of waste collection services, waste is often dumped directly into the lagoon. Furthermore, electronic waste from the Global North is dumped on the margins of the lagoon, where scrap dealers recycle and sell whatever can be salvaged. The extent and scale of waste accumulation that surrounds the community is massive. Though small in area, this nexus of both the city's and the world's waste networks has a dramatic effect on the entire metropolis.

Negotiating Space: Old Fadama (2013) is showcases images of Korle Lagoon and the subsequent demolition that almost took place there on December 18, 2011. The video serves as a wake-up call that the artists hope will be a catalyst to provoke meaningful discourse----among civil society organizations, community stakeholders, governments, concerned individuals, and the broader global community----on the environmental and social realities of poverty and unmanaged urbanization.