CRITICAL MINERALS - DRC

September 11, 2023

The third leg of the 'Critical Minerals' project took me to the Democratic Republic of Congo to document the condition and impact of the mining of Copper and Cobalt, essential for the green energy transition.

The environmental and human conditions of mining have been widely reported, and the mainstream narrative faithfully describes the devastating working conditions, the quasi-slave-like exploitation and the problematic health, environmental and economic conditions that men, women, and often children are subjected to, directly or indirectly involved in mining. […]

Critical Minerals - Chile

June 12, 2023

I have never seen such iridescent light as radiated in the sky above San Pedro de Atacama at sunset.

It is an immense lapse of time ruled by the sun and the dryness of the air at an altitude of three thousand metres. Between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., the rocks and the surrounding desert are irradiated with shades of yellow, indigo, violet, green, and blue that my camera refuses to register.

Explaining myself "Sinomocene"

February 14, 2021

"Sinomocene" is a project that takes its cue from the documentation of the Chinese initiative known as "Belt and Road" or "New Silk Road" to investigate more widely on issues of new forms of colonialism, globalization, and the relation between Powers and individuals. The work focuses on the social and environmental impact of large capital movements linked to geopolitical strategies at a global and local level. Like many other powers in history, as soon as China amassed enough economic wealth at home, it began projecting its influence overseas.

Brodskij, Lenin e "The April Theses"

May 8, 2017

"Tutto questo aveva ben poco a che fare con Lenin, per il quale, suppongo, il mio disprezzo cominciò fin da quando ero in prima elementare – non tanto a causa della sua filosofia politica o della sua prassi, di cui a sette anni sapevo ben poco, ma per via delle sue immagini onnipresenti che infestavano quasi ogni libro di testo, ogni parete della scuola, francobolli, monete e quant’altro, raffigurando l’uomo in varie età e fasi della sua vita. C’era baby Lenin, che con i suoi boccoli biondi somigliava a un cherubino. Poi Lenin ventenne e trentenne, calvo e impettito, con la faccia atteggiata a un’espressione che non significava niente e poteva essere scambiata per tutto, preferibilmente un senso di determinazione. Quella faccia perseguita in un modo o nell’altro ogni russo e propone una sorta di modello umano per la sua assoluta mancanza di carattere. (Forse, non essendovi in essa nulla di specifico, quella faccia suggerisce molte possibilità). Poi c’era un Lenin attempato, più calvo, con la sua barba a cuneo, nel suo completo scuro, a volte sorridente ma più spesso nell’atto di parlare alle «masse» dall’alto di un’autoblindo o dal podio di qualche congresso del partito, con una mano protesa nell’aria. Non mancavano le varianti: Lenin col suo berretto da operaio, con un garofano infilato nell’occhiello; in panciotto, seduto nel suo studio, a scrivere o a leggere; su un ceppo in riva al lago, a scribacchiare le sue Tesi d’aprile, o qualche altra sciocchezza, al fresco."

Fuga da Bisanzio - Iosif Brodskij.

From: "The April Theses", iLENIN#5 ©davide Monteleone

Coming soon: "The April Theses"

The April Theses #1

March 5, 2017

In March 1917 Vladimir Ilych Ulyanov (LENIN) was leaving exiled and in poverty in Zurich. Within eight months he assumed the leadership on 16000000 people occupying one-sixth of inhabited surface of the world. On April 9th 1917, with the support of German authorities, at that time in war with Russia, he travelled back to his own country on a train across Germany, Sweden and Finland to reach Finland Station in St. Petersburg on April 16th. By the time he was back in St Petersburg he wrote a ten points program known as “The April Theses”.

Lenin's Statue at "RGASPI" - Moscow. ©Davide Monteleone.

Part of the documents concerning Lenin's life between March 27th and April 22nd 1917 which I reviewed to research about the trip and "The April Theses".

100 year later I created a chronology of that 2 weeks of Lenin’s life just before the events that changed Russia and the entire world. In search of the original draft of “The April Theses” I recreated and sometime reacted on a real non-invented trip Lenin’s epic journey on the base of archival documents found it at the R.G.A.S.P.I (Political History Russian State Archive of Political History ) and historical books including “To Finland Station” by Edmund Wilson and “The sealed train” by Michael Pearson.