B08－Maria Lezhnina
Photographic project
Artificial Climate series from Untitled Climates project. In “artificial climate,” I collect one of my investigations of the swimming pool as an artificial climate, in particular elaborating on the varying relationship of water and space that is often hidden behind the times when the facility is normally accessible. Climate, from ancient Greek klima, meaning inclination, is commonly defined as the weather averaged over a long period.
Over historical time spans there are a number of nearly constant variables that define climate -such as plate tectonics, that takes over millions of years to process- other variables are more dynamic and greatly depend on the globalized human activity, which can inform changes faster than a decade. That said, the difference between climate and weather is well summarized by the popular phrase “climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.” At the same time, if weather is what every day we have to deal with, it is climate that defines the growth and development of any living being, both animal and vegetal.
In other words, the climate defines the landscape. In the light of all this, climate offers a critical point of view on the landscape at the time of globalization. This is due to three reasons. The first is because landscapes are disappearing due to climate change.
So, it is time for us to picture and document fading landscapes as the expression of an old climate. Secondly, today we can technically reproduce climate in botanical gardens and other leisure or educative facilities, and we make flora and fauna to travel around the globe.
So, since landscape can be manipulated, reorganized, subjectively represented, we should develop a sensibility to the appearance of the climate, as well as its technical determinants and infrastructure. The third is that climate is within the materiality of the air, that traps the light and greatly defines the visual quality of the landscape.
Thus, it is climate, instead of landscape, that is at the center of my photographic work at the time of globalization, and these three reasons substantiate the main directions of my work.
Maria Lezhnina
Maria Lezhnina is an awarded photographer and architect, interested in the contemporary city and landscape. Her experience is particularly diverse, falling between research projects for the Swiss landscape to an exhibition at the Italian National Museum of 21st Century Arts on the impact of new energy systems, then teaching architecture and knowledge of space to the children with the Finnish school ARKKI, and working for design practices in Moscow (Russia), Mendrisio (Switzerland), Genova, Milan (Italy), Baku (Azerbaijan), and Taipei (Taiwan). This particular interdisciplinary background, as well as exposure to different cultures, has finally raised her interest in photography.
Website：https://www.instagram.com/lezhninamaria/
Artificial Climate series from Untitled Climates project. In “artificial climate,” I collect one of my investigations of the swimming pool as an artificial climate, in particular elaborating on the varying relationship of water and space that is often hidden behind the times when the facility is normally accessible. Climate, from ancient Greek klima, meaning inclination, is commonly defined as the weather averaged over a long period.
Over historical time spans there are a number of nearly constant variables that define climate -such as plate tectonics, that takes over millions of years to process- other variables are more dynamic and greatly depend on the globalized human activity, which can inform changes faster than a decade. That said, the difference between climate and weather is well summarized by the popular phrase “climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.” At the same time, if weather is what every day we have to deal with, it is climate that defines the growth and development of any living being, both animal and vegetal.
In other words, the climate defines the landscape. In the light of all this, climate offers a critical point of view on the landscape at the time of globalization. This is due to three reasons. The first is because landscapes are disappearing due to climate change.
So, it is time for us to picture and document fading landscapes as the expression of an old climate. Secondly, today we can technically reproduce climate in botanical gardens and other leisure or educative facilities, and we make flora and fauna to travel around the globe.
So, since landscape can be manipulated, reorganized, subjectively represented, we should develop a sensibility to the appearance of the climate, as well as its technical determinants and infrastructure. The third is that climate is within the materiality of the air, that traps the light and greatly defines the visual quality of the landscape.
Thus, it is climate, instead of landscape, that is at the center of my photographic work at the time of globalization, and these three reasons substantiate the main directions of my work.
Maria Lezhnina
Maria Lezhnina is an awarded photographer and architect, interested in the contemporary city and landscape. Her experience is particularly diverse, falling between research projects for the Swiss landscape to an exhibition at the Italian National Museum of 21st Century Arts on the impact of new energy systems, then teaching architecture and knowledge of space to the children with the Finnish school ARKKI, and working for design practices in Moscow (Russia), Mendrisio (Switzerland), Genova, Milan (Italy), Baku (Azerbaijan), and Taipei (Taiwan). This particular interdisciplinary background, as well as exposure to different cultures, has finally raised her interest in photography.
Website：https://www.instagram.com/lezhninamaria/