Animals according to Steve McCurry are at MUDEC with the unprecedented exhibition Animals

MUDEC PHOTO, the new exhibition space of the Museo delle Culture (MuDEC) in Milan dedicated to art photography, is born, and for the occasion the Municipality of Milan-Cultura, MUDEC and 24 ORE Cultura-Gruppo 24 ORE, in collaboration with SUDEST57, have decided to entrust the genius and sensitivity of the great American photographer Steve McCurry (Darby, 1950) the opening of the new space by presenting to the public Animals, an exhibition project specially created for the Museo delle Culture, curated by Biba Giacchetti.

From December 16, 2018 to March 31, 2019, animals will in fact be the protagonists of 60 iconic shots, including famous and lesser-known ones that will tell visitors the thousands of stories of daily life that inextricably link animals to humans and vice versa. It is a choral fresco of interaction, of sharing, touching on the themes of the work and sustenance that the animal provides for man, the consequences of man’s actions on local and global wildlife, and the affection that man lavishes on his “pet,” whatever it may be.

The Animals project originated in 1992 when photographer Steve McCurry went on a mission to the war territories in the Gulf area to document the disastrous environmental and wildlife impact at the sites of the conflict. McCurry will return from the Gulf with some of his most famous “iconic” images, such as camels crossing burning oil wells and migratory birds entirely smeared with oil. With this reportage he would win the prestigious Word Press Photo in the same year. The prize was awarded by a very special jury, the Children Jury, composed of children from all nations.

Steve McCurry has always placed stories related to the most fragile groups at the center of his lens in his projects: he has explored, with a focus on children, the plight of civilians in conflict areas; he has documented endangered ethnic groups and the consequences of natural cataclysms. Beginning with that ’92 report, he finally added, to his innumerable gazes, an empathetic one toward animals.

Animals as a way to survival (the working animals), animals sometimes exploited as the only resource to a condition of misery, other times loved and recognized as companions to alleviate misery, or simply for a form of symbiotic affection; always in a spirit of an explorer of human relationships.

To create the Animals exhibition author and curator worked in unison delving into the photographer’s immense archive to select a collection of images that would tell the diverse conditions of animals in a single fresco. The exhibition’s itinerary leaves the visitor maximum freedom, while fixing an invisible map articulated on different emotional registers, capable of alternating the most challenging images with others of great lightness and positivity.

Steve McCurry explorer of humankind thus offers us a journey into the contiguity of the animal planet; he speaks to us of relationships and consequences; his indelible images are timeless; and, as happens to those who travel tirelessly to tell stories, he seems to show nostalgia for a world in continuous and dangerous transformation that he can only document.

“Animals invites us to reflect on the fact that we are not alone in this world,” explains exhibition curator Biba Giacchetti, who continues, “in the midst of all the living creatures around us. But above all, it leaves visitors with a message: namely, that although humans and animals share the same earth, only we humans have the power needed to defend and save the planet.”

For all information you can visit MUDEC’s official website.

Pictured: Steve McCurry, Thailand, Chiang Mai, 2010

Animals according to Steve McCurry are at MUDEC with the unprecedented exhibition Animals

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