Deposit: Yann Mingard

I was asked to curate the sociopolitical exhibition Deposit (2015) by photographer Yann Mingard which was on show from 20th of February until 7th of June 2015 in FotoMuseum Antwerp.

Mingard takes us to collection centres and storage places that we have never even heard of. The project is divided into four parts: Plants, Animals, Humans and Data. Deposit is a confrontation, posing difficult questions about the current state, sustainability and future life on earth.

What techniques are being developed to optimise lifeforms? What are the consequences of creating resistant plants, eliminating human disease or cloning animals? On what scale and with what purpose is huge amounts of data being systematically collected? What function could extinct species have in the future?

The exhibition shows the diverse locations where seed, semen, tissue and digital data are being stored by governments, companies and private individuals. Mingard travelled from the largest seed bank in Svalbard, Norway, to the heavily guarded digital storage bunker Swiss Fort Knox. His images capture the paradoxical nature of these places: in order to protect and preserve life, it is buried away from sight.

Deposit is a collaboration between Fotomuseum Winterthur, Museum Folkwang, Essen, FotoMuseum Antwerp and GwinZegal, Guincamp. With support from the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia. The exhibition is curated by Iris Sikking. Icelandic composer Ben Frost wrote a soundscape specially for Deposit.