‘Plastic Sea, Perfect Storm’ is the latest chapter in the photo documentary project The Europeans, which portrays modern Europe. In this multi-year project, photographer Rob Hornstra and writer and filmmaker Arnold van Bruggen travel from region to region and theme to theme to sketch a 21st-century snapshot of Europe's heartland.
In southern Spain lies Europe's largest vegetable garden: an endless sea of plastic greenhouses, visible even from space. Thanks to abundant sunshine and efficient water use, it supplies cheap fruit and vegetables to our supermarkets. But behind this efficiency lies the exploitation of migrants, inhuman living conditions and ecological destruction. How long will Europe tolerate this exploitation and ecological destruction - in exchange for cheap produce?
From the book: “What if a crisis overwhelms you so much that you feel physically unwell and depressed? You experience the loss of the world as it once was. Psychologists call it an ambiguous loss: the world is still there, but it seems as if something has been taken from you. Lawlessness, pollution, climate change, a raging economy focused on profit and growth. It can trigger a sense of powerlessness in you, leave you grieving for that elusive something that seems lost forever. Grief can trigger anger and action, but also resignation and defeatism; let the storm rage. In the sea of plastic, modern Europe reveals itself in all its nakedness.”
The Europeans
Across Europe, Hornstra and van Bruggen see nationalism rising, democracies under pressure and wars returning to the continent. The political dream of a united and peaceful Europe seems increasingly fragile. “In The Europeans we travel to different regions on the continent to explore what it means to be European today. Each chapter ends with a local exhibition and publication - not always in museums or galleries, but also in public spaces, shops and other places where people live and meet.”
Pop-up exhibition
The European Cultural Foundation supports The Europeans in their long-term project and invited Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen to realise a pop-up exhibition in Domo. Home for International Cultural Collaboration, the common home of Cultural Emergency Response, DutchCulture, European Cultural Foundation and Prince Claus Fund.
The exhibition Plastic Sea, Perfect Storm is part of the official programme of PHotoESPAÑA and can be seen in its entirety at Kunsthal Rotterdam from 2 October.
The pop-up photo exhibition is free to visit in:
Domo. Home for International Cultural Collaboration
Nieuwe Herengracht 14
1018 DP Amsterdam
Openedfrom 17 April to 13 May, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 1pm to 5.30pm.Please note that the exhibition will be closed on Wednesday 22 April.
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