Arctic Spleen is a self-funded project.
A comprehensive work that offers a different social perspective over the
3.000 Inuits community on the east coast of Greenland. One of the currently lesser
known societies, discovered and rescued by sure extinction only in 1894.
Since 2009 I have been photographing and filming in east Greenland trying to paint the social, cultural and environmental landscape of the region and its community, focusing on the phenomenon that has earned this place an enviable record.
Arctic Spleen is a personal intimate journey inside the
Greenlandic juvenile world where nature, violence, boredom and a
strong cultural legacy have been claiming for decades the highest
and saddest "toll". That of hundreds of young lives.
In east Greenland twenty percent of youths aged between 15 and 25
try to end their lives every year. Two percent of them succeed.
It's the highest juvenile suicide rate in the world.
A mirror on the fears of a huge part of young Greenlanders
inclined to commit suicide.
A delicate exploration of the subtle and intimate war many young
people fight against violence, boredom and emptiness, a struggle
that has always been the “raison d’etre” of young generations, the
difference being that in east Greenland many of them lose that
battle.
Suicide here is experienced differently from the rest of the world. It's not perceived as the ultimate
desperate act of a single person but considered an exit strategy
deeply ingrained in the local culture. It was the ancient manner
of solving problems, distortedly handed down over generations.
"This work immediately transformed into an intimate experience,
a story of friends.
I wanted to follow my
instincts, letting myself be guided by the deep empathy
established with these people. In an instinctive, intimate,
respectful and not bulky manner.
Everything was done by me alone,
without any crew, experiencing the everyday using a small
videocamera as an extension of my feelings to record what I
observed, heard and felt."
Piergiorgio Casotti
Upaluk Poppel, Inuit Circumpolar Youth Council
Binding: Hardback
Size: 17x22 cm
Pages: 168
Pictures: 136 Black_White
Paper: Munken Lynx 150gr
Printing: Duotone Offset
Language: English + Italian
Book project: 3/3
First edition: 2013
ISBN: 978-88-908695-0-1
Regular 37 € The book
Signed + Numbered 60 € Signed, Numbered + 20cm print
GO TO BOOKSHOP / ACQUISTALimited edition 175 €
INFO & PICTURES
New York Photo Festival Invitational (2012)
Adana Short Film Festival (2012)
Skepto Film Festival (2012)
PDN Photo Annual (2011)
Collecchio Film Festival (2011)
19th Ozu Film Festival (2011)
Los Angeles Times - Best of the web