Alejandro León Cannock
PERU
Artist and SMArtArtist's Career
Pictures to raise
Awareness on the challenges
Facing Mountain Regions
During his residence in Sierre (September-December, 2015) Alejandro León Cannock focused his attention on the melting of glaciers and on water management. If, for him, the network of « bisses » represents « life » – these irrigation channels were indeed essential for mountain agriculture – he associates the melting of glaciers with « death ».
His first images focus on the limit of the glacier, where the ice tongue stops. At the same time as he took these pictures, Alejandro León Cannock collected some stones and moved towards an exercise of « deterritorialization » by taking pictures of these stones on a white background, in a scientific register, or on backgrounds of two primary colours, in a more artistic register.
On the theme of water, the artist proposes diptychs constituted of classic landscapes and portraits of « bisses » and their guards.
Thus, through these various works, Alejandro León Cannock draws our attention on the environmental problems that affect the Valais region. But he also reminds us that any image is a construction, cultural, political or social, which can be interpreted in various ways.