Work Today, Tomorrow And Centuries Ago
The Mast Collection presents its first exhibition: A Visual Alphabet of Industry, Work and Technology.
A for Abandoned / Architecture to W for Waste / Water / Wealth. A visual alphabet travels through the walls of the first exhibition by the Mast Collection, with 500 images selected from its archive of over 6000 photos, albums and videos by Italian and international photographers. In the words of Urs Stahel, curator of the exhibition, “Photography is a key child of industrialization and yet it also simultaneously represents its most powerful visual report, memory, and commentary”.
Otto Steinert. Saarland, Industrial Landscape 3, 1950
Thomas Demand. Space Simulator, 2003
Cèsar Domela. Ruths steam accumulator, 1928
Paolo Woods, Gabriele Galimberti. The Heavens. Annual Report, 2013
Taking place in the Italian city of Bologna, an important industrial center with a history of labour union, the exhibition puts side by side images shot by high-sounding names and anonymous artists, futuristic machines and coal, workers and intellectuals, digital prints and alternative processes. In line with the foundation’s mission, it is a powerful display of “the fatigue, exploitation and dignity” bound to labour.
Sebastião Salgado. Oil well, Burhan, Kuwait
Geert Goiris. Peak Oil #33, Antwerp, 2018
Hans Peter Klauser. Happy bathers by the Sihl, 1936
W. Eugene Smith. Steelworker with goggles, Pittsburgh,1955
The MAST Collection - A Visual Alphabet of Industry, Work and Technology is on view at
Fondazione MAST until August 28.
