<< FOR THIS PLACE WE HAVE NO NAME >> - Photographs by Pieter Hugo

In the last months I had said several times that the only photo exhibitions selling trimmed to us Romans are of very little social importance and lame from the point of view of photographic research.

Photo by Pieter Hugo from the series "Permanent Error"

Photo by Pieter Hugo from the series "Permanent Error"

We had to visit the exhibition of postcards photoshopped by Steve McCurry, where all the inhabitants of the five continents (even children who are to wield machine guns or exploited miners in South America) seem calm and wearing colorful clothes and ironed. We also reviewed the photographs of Henri Cartier Bresson in a new exhibition space in the center of Rome, accompanied each by songs and poems written by famous authors.  

Photo by Pieter Hugo from the series Permanent Error

So far, nothing exciting, nothing interesting. Fortunately, I had to change my mind on entering the Hall of Carlo Scarpa MAXXI, where, until April 29, are on display photographs by Pieter Hugo. Finally, a documentary photo exhibition with a goal of raising awareness of a serious problem today.South African photographer Pieter Hugo has dedicated the past ten years documenting the very extensive landfill of electronic waste, located in the slums of Agbogbloshie, west of Accra, the capital of Ghana. On its website he says that, when asked the inhabitants of thelandfill the name of the place, they have consistently said that for that  place there was no name. Only those who don't live in the dump but inhabit the rich areas of the city, have dubbed the area 'Sodom and Gomorrah' (killed by God in the Old Testament by a rain of fire and brimstone). The photographs in the exhibition "permanet Error" by Pieter Hugo meticulously describe a new African scenario, not poverty civil wars, but the consequences of capitalism and rampant consumerism of western society and the uncontrolled disposal of waste. Pieter Hugo's photographs have made me leap to mind the report by Der Spiegel translated by Internazionale in April 2010, in wich the journalist, with an objective viewpoint, told the daily lives of children who live in the slums of Agbogbloshie. Here are some excerpts:

Photo by Pieter Hugo from the series Permanent Error

<< Rich countries waste burn in Accra - the capital of Ghana is a huge dump of electronic products. Young boys dispose them, living among poisons and toxic fumes. [...] The  Agbogbloshie cabins are surrounded by smoke black burning throat. Even the water of the river flowing nearby is black and thick as oil. The river to the sea drag the carcasses of empty computer. One of the two sides there is a large open space where fragments of burning plastic and foam. The flames devour the sheathing around the cables and electronic cards. The wind spreads the smoke of hell the whole area near the fire and people seem just shadows in the fog. Breathing is bad for lungs. A curved silhouette walks through the flames. With a boy dragging a hand in the ashes an old speaker, hanging from a cord. In her other hand squeezes a plastic bag. The speaker and the envelope, pants and shirt he wears, are all the possessions of this boy with an unusual name>> .

The 'photo exhibition "Permanent Error" by Pieter Hugo, curated by Francesca Fabiani, is part of the exhibition Re-cycle, the MAXXI in Rome until April 29, 2012.