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Ground Sea

Photography and the Right to Be Reborn

Hilde Van Gelder (Author),

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Series: Lieven Gevaert Series 30

Category: Photography

Language: English

ISBN: 9789462702653

Publication date: September 15, 2021

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Number of pages: 1000

Size: 230 x 170 x 45 mm

Number of illustrations: 120

Illustrations and other content description:
120 illustrations

Stock item: 143293

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Series: Lieven Gevaert Series 30

Category: Photography

Language: English

DOI: 10.11116/9789461665768

ISBN: 9789461665768

Publication date: April 19, 2024

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Number of pages: 1000

Number of illustrations: 120

Illustrations and other content description:
120 illustrations

Summary
Contents
About the Author
Reviews

TWO-VOLUME SET

Viewing the Strait of Dover through the lens of photography theory

Imagine a world in which each individual has a fundamental right to be reborn. This idle dream haunts Hilde Van Gelder’s associative travelogue that takes Allan Sekula’s sequence Deep Six / Passer au bleu (1996/1998) as a touchstone for a dialogue with more recent artworks zooming in on the borderscape near the Channel Tunnel, such as those by Sylvain George and Bruno Serralongue.

Combining ethnography, visual materials, political philosophy, cultural geography, and critical analysis, Ground Sea proceeds through an innovative methodological approach. Inspired by the meandering writings of W.G. Sebald, Javier Marías, and Roland Barthes, Van Gelder develops a style both interdisciplinary and personal.

Resolutely opting for an aquatic perspective, Ground Sea offers a powerful meditation on the indifference of an increasingly divided European Union with regard to considerable numbers of persons on the move, who find themselves stranded close to Calais. The contested Strait of Dover becomes a microcosm where our present global challenges of migration, climate change, human rights, and neoliberal surveillance technology converge.

Read more on the book’s dedicated website: www.groundsea.be

This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content). Ebook available in Open Access.

Contents of Volume I Preface: Water-Bound Embarkation: Bone Point Acknowledgments Introduction: Sea-Stricken
PART I: Blade 1. Running on Water 2. Ground Sea Plates 3. Ossuary 4. Kairology 5. Reliquiae Notes
Deep Six / Passer au bleu (1996/1998) by Allan Sekula
Contents of Volume II
PART II: Shuttle 6. The Right to Reappear 7. Naming the Person without a Name 8. Fools & Rights: Leaves for an Illustrated Reader Plates 9. This Precious Jewel 10. Plotting
At Anchor: Pearl Diving
Notes Bibliography

Hilde Van Gelder

Hilde Van Gelder is professor of art history at KU Leuven.

'Ground Sea' makes a significant contribution to these debates as it raises the issue of human rights and the role of photography in the ongoing violation of fundamental freedoms.
Olga Smith, Focales, 7 | 2023 URL : http://journals.openedition.org/focales/2514

Hilde Van Gelder rassemble un corpus qui témoignent des conditions de survie de migrants qui n’ont plus rien à perdre, qui attendent le moment opportun pour se cacher dans le châssis d’un camion rejoignant un ferry et s’automutilent pour effacer leurs empreintes digitales (p. 389-351). Son écriture procède par la mise en relation des descriptions minutieuses des œuvres, avec le récit de parcours de migrants, des observations personnelles recueillies sur les lieux de ses recherches et des réflexions nourries de différentes disciplines. La photographie est envisagée comme un médium privilégié pour évoquer le transitoire ou ce qui n’est déjà plus : les écosystèmes modifiés, les dangereuses traversés, les errances, les identités malmenées, le risque de disparaître ou la construction d’une vie nouvelle. Hilde Van Gelder prend résolument partie en démontrant le manque d’humanisme et la précarité d’un monde qui se réconforte dans les nationalismes.- Lola Lorant, Critique d’art, le 01 juin 2023, DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/critiquedart.94779