Imagine a world in which each individual has a fundamental right to be reborn. This idle dream haunts Hilde Van Gelder's associative travelogue that takes Allan Sekula's sequence Deep Six / Passer au bleu (1996/1998) as a touchstone for a dialogue with more recent artworks zooming in on the borderscape near the Channel Tunnel, such as those by Sylvain George and Bruno Serralongue. Combining ethnography, visual materials, political philosophy, cultural geography, and critical analysis, Ground Sea proceeds through an innovative methodological approach. Inspired by the meandering writings of W.G. Sebald, Javier Marias, and Roland Barthes, Van Gelder develops a style both interdisciplinary and personal. Resolutely opting for an aquatic perspective, Ground Sea offers a powerful meditation on the indifference of an increasingly divided European Union with regard to considerable numbers of persons on the move, who find themselves stranded close to Calais. The contested Strait of Dover becomes a microcosm where our present global challenges of migration, climate change, human rights, and neoliberal surveillance technology converge.

About the Author
Hilde Van Gelder is professor of Contemporary Art History at KU Leuven. She is director of the Lieven Gevaert Research Centre for Photography, Art and Visual Culture.

Reviews

'Ground Sea' makes a significant contribution to these debates as it raises the issue of human rights and the role of photography in the ongoing violation of fundamental freedoms.
Olga Smith, Focales, 7 | 2023 URL : http://journals.openedition.org/focales/2514

Book Information
ISBN 9789462702653
Author Hilde Van Gelder
Format Paperback
Page Count 1000
Imprint Leuven University Press
Publisher Leuven University Press
Weight(grams) 2040g
Dimensions(mm) 230mm * 170mm * 45mm