CHEN Haishu:Zona Rossa

《Zona Rossa》

CHEN Haishu

Taking Mount Vesuvius as a sample, CHENHaishu’s multi media work “Zona Rossa” discusses how the concept of “danger” isdefined, sensed, represented, and manipulated by our human society. Usingdifferent visual materials, including photos, video clips and texts, “ZonaRossa” reveals the multiple characters of Vesuvius – as not only a naturalobject, but also one that is manipulated by politics, religion, history,culture, and science. The work includes photographs and interviews from CHEN’sseveral trips to Vesuvius during 2012-2015, a video composed of clippings fromdifferent films and TV-series about Vesuvius and Pompeii, quotes from twoletters by the ancient Roman politician Pliny the younger describing aneruption of Vesuvius, and texts released by the Italian Civil DefenseDepartment on the emergency plan for Mount Vesuvius.

CHEN Haishu was born in1986 in Fuzhou,Fujian province, China. He now works and lives in Karlsruhe, Germany. Usingmainly photography, but also including other media such as text, video, film,and book, CHEN focuses on the living conditions, social perceptions, andcollective memory in today’s society.