Marianne Wasowska

Non-contacted peoples, or isolated peoples, are those who keep avoiding any contact with western society. Some researchers claim that their survival depends on this voluntary isolation – for neither their way of life nor their immune system would withstand confrontation with our world. Yet attempts to meet them, observe them and photograph them continue to multiply, even though these gestures would directly contribute to their disappearance. Rather than seeking to represent those who have chosen invisibility, this work focuses on the fantasy they arouse and the desire generated by those who do not yet bear the mark of our presence. 

By questioning the relationship between western thought and the unknown, he investigates the origins of colonialism and the Anthropocene. The images gathered here, found on the Internet, were taken from helicopters, boats and tourist buses. What they have in common is their poor, pixelated texture, and the vertical perspective that Hito Steyerl refers to when defining the way in which surveillance devices (drones, cameras) have changed our paradigm for representing the world. 

Printed using a chlorophyll-based process, the unfixed photographs fade if exposed to light, and are therefore designed to be placed in the dark. Visitors are given a UV lamp, which they can choose whether or not to use, in the knowledge that the light needed to see the photographs is not available.

Antotypes 90x60cm, UV lamps