PRESS RELEASE | If only the river remains to speak. Sensitive environment for the Omo Valley tribes
Digital rendering, Studio Azzurro, 2018
If only the river remains to speak. Sensitive environment for the Omo Valley tribes
Press release for Museo delle Cultre, Milan, Italy
October 1, 2018 – December 31, 2018
An art installation by photographer Jane Baldwin and Studio Azzurro, in support of Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples
The story of peoples who depend on a river for their lives. Voices activated by a piece of red clay—red as the gravel bed of the Omo River, which is at risk of drying up. A story of a river and a struggle for life…
The project combines the artwork of American photographer and educator Jane Baldwin with the creativity of the renowned Milanese art research group Studio Azzurro, founded in Milan in 1982. The immersive art experience raises awareness for the vital work of Survival International by deepening empathy for tribal peoples’ lives, lands and cultures caught in a man-made environmental and humanitarian crises in Ethiopia’s Omo River Valley and Kenya’s Lake Turkana watershed, which was recently added to UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites in Danger.
Immersed in the sounds of a flowing river, a metaphorical sculpture of red clay symbolizes the Omo River’s meandering course. The red, desiccated surface of the river indicates the crumbling and dried up riverbed, deprived of its annual flood by a controversial development project. The visitor transforms a clay fragment into an amulet that is dropped into a receptacle, transforming the river into a storyteller, the voice of the river becomes the voices of the women.
Thus, the interactive poetic journey along the Omo River begins as visitors engage with the women, who are the main characters of the project and the depositaries of oral traditions through tales, myth and song.
The project honors the women of this region, the birthplace of humankind, and reveals the deep bonds between humans and their habitat, between other peoples and ourselves. The installation inspires reflection on the value of safeguarding biological and cultural diversity for the future of humanity at a time when the global drive for limited resources continues unabated.
For 10 years, the Omo ecosystem and the people who depend on it have been threatened by a huge hydroelectric project made in Italy, and by the land grabbing that followed by agro-industrial farmers who want to grow cotton and sugarcane crops for export.
INFO:
OPENING TIMES: Mon 2.30 pm –7.30 pm Tue, Wed, Fri, Sun 9.30 am – 7.30 pm Thur, Sat 9.30 am –10.30 pm
ADMISSION: Free
Infoline: 0254917 (Mon-Fri 10.00am-5.00pm)
Schools: ufficiostampa@survival.it
or 02 8900671
Workshops by Survival International for high school students are available for free, in Italian. The case of the Omo River Valley and its peoples is the starting point for a guided activity for debating topics of development, land, climate change, individual and collective identities. The workshops are intended to stimulate reflection about the meaning and vital role of respect for diversity, and will follow the multidisciplinary vocation of the art project, pertaining to international law, geography, anthropology, philosophy and ecology.
Follow-up materials will be supplied by Survival International. For info and bookings: ufficiostampa@survival.it or 02-8900671.
PRESS RELEASE: Jane Baldwin | Kara Women Speak
Hamar matriarch ©Jane Baldwin 2012
Jane Baldwin | Kara Women Speak
Pamela Coddington, Press Release for Sonoma Valley Museum of Art
June 26, 2015
SONOMA, CA – June 26, 2015 – Jane Baldwin’s travel and immersive work in the Omo River Valley photographing and recording stories from the women of indigenous communities living in Ethiopia and Kenya will be seen in an exhibition at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art from September 12-December 6, 2015. A series of public programs will bring environmental and human rights activists in to explore these urgent issues.
The exhibition features a selection of life size portraits and accompanying stories that span cultural traditions of first and second wife, death and mourning, arranged marriage, childbirth, education, a woman’s role as a Kara government representative. The multi-sensory exhibition also features Baldwin’s ten-minute short film of a Kara women musing about her concerns for the survival of her people, an audio tour that highlights the soundscape of field recordings along the banks of the Omo River, and a selection of artifacts gifted to the artist.
“Working behind a medium format Hasselblad, Baldwin’s engagement with her subject is unbroken,” comments curator Anne Veh. “Artist and subject form a cross-cultural bridge of human understanding. Over time, Baldwin has created a documentation of indigenous culture that reflects the complex assimilation of the ancient and modern, woven into concerns for their future, all from a women’s perspective.”
Based in Duss, Baldwin’s camp was situated on the ancestral lands of the Kara tribe, providing an intimate relationship with the Kara, the smallest of the several self-sustaining indigenous tribes along the Omo River. Immediately drawn to the women of the Kara and neighboring tribes, the Nyangatom, Hamar, Turkana and Dassanach, Baldwin found herself quietly sitting with the women, watching, listening and adapting to the natural rhythms of river life on the Omo. Baldwin’s curiosity and willingness to bare witness to their stories engendered a trust that evolved slowly and developed into a lifetime multi-media project. Kara women are the keepers of the ancient oral traditions; through storytelling the legacy of a harmonious and interdependent way of life is preserved through myth, proverb and song.
The Kara, a population of approximately 1,200, depend on the river’s annual flood cycle to replenish their land to farm sorghum and maize and to nourish their livestock. Their agro-pastoralist way of life is currently threatened by the construction of a giant hydroelectric dam on the Upper Omo River, the Gibe III (nearing completion) and land grabs by foreign investors and governments for the production of cotton and sugar cane. The Omo River, reverently referred to as their Mother and Father, has provided for the Kara’s wellbeing since the beginning of time.
A poignant moment for Baldwin occurred when the women elders reversed the questioning during an interview and asked Jane, “Do you know what is happening with the Dam? And if you do would you tell us?” Baldwin states, “These stories give voice to the uncertain fate of all indigenous people in the developing world who are threatened by the global drive for dwindling natural resources.”
Opportunities to explore the international practice of land grabs, hydropower projects, and human rights violations are timely, as well as inspiring innovative ways and practices to preserve what is sacred and an ecologically sustainable way of life. Several public programs examining these issues are being planned, where policy experts from around the globe will convene at SVMA. A lesson plan for high school and college students is available by clicking here.
Baldwin reflects, “As a photographer, I believe art can inform and focus our attention in powerful and insightful ways. Through engagement and conversation, art can inspire empathy and evoke our humanity by raising awareness of political issues, and be a catalyst for change.”
For more information on the environment, political and social issues facing the tribes in the Omo River Valley and the Lake Turkana watershed, please visit the following non-profits online at: International Rivers, Berkeley, California; Friends of Lake Turkana, Lodwar, Kenya; Human Rights Watch, New York, New York; Oakland Institute, Oakland, California; and Survival International, London, England.
The exhibition provides opportunities to explore the international practice of land grabs, hydropower projects, and human rights violations are timely, as well as inspiring innovative ways and practices to preserve what is sacred and an ecologically sustainable way of life.
About the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art
Established in 1998, the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art is a membership supported 501(c) 3 non-profit organization that provides seasonal exhibitions of contemporary and modern art and educational and public programming for children, youth and adults. Its mission is to be, “a magnet of creative energy and cultural inspiration with exhibitions and educational programs that engage the community in the art and ideas of our time, encouraging curiosity and innovation.”