Are They Rocks or Clouds?

‘Are They Rocks or Clouds?’ addresses the history of hydrogeological events in the Dolomite mountains and, more broadly, how our cultural memories of such incidents are shaped. The work explores how human habitation persists in locations that have established patterns of landslides, floods, and other such possible catastrophes and therefore comprises a blend of research and archival images, texts, and recent photographs woven together to address the themes of Destruction, Protection, Experience, Representation and Resilience in areas with centuries-long cycles of human vulnerability in the face of natural disasters.

‘Are They Rocks or Clouds?’ balances information, history and visual pleasure as the reader is asked to confront the risks we take, as humans, in our effort to live comfortably while also pushing the limits of how we interact with the natural world.

(Lesley A. Martin, The Dummy Photobook Prize, Cortona On The Move, 2018)

The project started researching a catastrophe which might happen in the future and that, according to geological studies and the theory of return period between occurrences, will happen in 50 years from now. The event that is supposed to happen again in the future is the one occurred in 1966. The estimated damages will be 2 or 3 times higher.

The images rhythm is determined by keywords as "the mountain as metaphor is poetry while the mountain recognized as a real source of danger alludes to the documentary, for which evidence is to be mounted to account for the monitoring of its moving, or testimonies to be gathered after an accident or a catastrophe." (Taco Hidde Bakker, Are They Documents or Poems?)

In the selection proposed: Representation - Destruction, Resilience, Protection, Representation, Protection, Destruction, Resilience, Representation, Experience, Experience, Destruction-Experience, Resilience, Resilience - Representation, Protection, Representation - Representation, Representation, Destruction, Representation, Experience, Resilience

The work has born with the idea of being a photobook. ‘Are They Rocks or Clouds?’ was published in July 2019 by Fw:Books and OTM with three essays and an important component of texts named Coda.

Essays:

Taco Hidde Bakker (writer and curator), Are They Documents or Poems?

Emiliano Oddone (geologist), The Gravity of Beauty

Annibale Salsa (Anthropologist), The Knowledge Defect

Are They Rocks or Clouds? is a multifaceted series of photographs that benefits from the indeterminacy that, on the one hand, underpins poetry and, on the other, is the boundary of science, all without succumbing to the ambiguity of the one or the presumption of the other, because, to cite the science historian D. Graham Burnett, “conclusions should, as a rule, be treated with suspicion.

(Raffaele Vertaldi, Domus 1034)

The work was exhibited at: Fotohof (Salzburg, 2019), Cortona On The Move (2019), F4 Fondazione Francesco Fabbri (2019), Looking On - MAR Ravenna (2019), Emerging Talents, Roma (2018-2019), Fotografia Europea Reggio Emilia (2018)

© Marina Caneve - ‘Are They Rocks or Clouds?’ book spread, Fw:Books and OTM 2019, Representation - Destruction
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‘Are They Rocks or Clouds?’ book spread, Fw:Books and OTM 2019, Representation - Destruction

© Marina Caneve - Protection
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Protection

© Marina Caneve - Representation
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Representation

© Marina Caneve - Protection
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Protection

© Marina Caneve - Destruction
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Destruction

© Marina Caneve - Resilience
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Resilience

© Marina Caneve - Representation
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Representation

© Marina Caneve - Experience
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Experience

© Marina Caneve - Experience
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Experience

© Marina Caneve - Destruction
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Destruction

© Marina Caneve - ‘Are They Rocks or Clouds?’ book spread, Fw:Books and OTM 2019, Destruction-Experience
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‘Are They Rocks or Clouds?’ book spread, Fw:Books and OTM 2019, Destruction-Experience

© Marina Caneve - Resilience
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Resilience

© Marina Caneve - ‘Are They Rocks or Clouds?’ book spread, Fw:Books and OTM 2019, Resilience - Representation
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‘Are They Rocks or Clouds?’ book spread, Fw:Books and OTM 2019, Resilience - Representation

© Marina Caneve - Protection
i

Protection

© Marina Caneve - ‘Are They Rocks or Clouds?’ book spread, Fw:Books and OTM 2019, Representation - Representation
i

‘Are They Rocks or Clouds?’ book spread, Fw:Books and OTM 2019, Representation - Representation

© Marina Caneve - Representation
i

Representation

© Marina Caneve - Destruction
i

Destruction

© Marina Caneve - Representation
i

Representation

© Marina Caneve - Experience
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Experience

© Marina Caneve - Resilience
i

Resilience

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