über Joanie Lemercier

Joanie Lemercier (born in 1982) is a French artist and environmental activist whose work explores human perception through the manipulation of light in space. In times of climate change, he increasingly puts his artistic work at the service of activist groups like Extinction Rebellion. In 2008 he co-founded the renowned visual label AntiVJ. His work has been exhibited at the China Museum of Digital Art in Beijing, Art Basel Miami, Sundance Film Festival, and Espacio Fundación Telefónica in Madrid. He has collaborated with Murcof, Flying Lotus, and JayZ, among others.

Website of Joanie Lemercier

Slow Violence

Zeche Hannover, Bochum

In his audiovisual installation SLOW VIOLENCE (2019-2021), Joanie Lemercier makes it possible to experience human encroachment on the environment for the purpose of energy production and reflects on the visible and invisible consequential damage caused by the industrial use of the planet: With the help of monumental drone footage, Lemercier documents the landscape destruction caused by open-cast lignite mining in the Rhenish mining region. He combines shots of the earth’s surface torn open with mesmerizing shots of the Hambach Forest and the plumes rising from the power plants.

The outdoor area of Zeche Hannover creates an impression of intact nature. Today, however, the renaturalized industrial area is still strongly marked by coal mining. While the consequential damage persists underground and is thus less visible, a few kilometers further on in the Rhineland the extent of the open-cast lignite mining becomes immediately obvious. With the video installation SLOW VIOLENCE, Lemercier visualizes the extent of the ecological damage caused by the extraction and burning of natural resources. The title is inspired by the concept of literary scholar Rob Nixon, who has referred to the gradually unfolding destruction as “slow violence”.

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