Footnote:
Seite 141: The first major exhibition of the work is at the Huis Marseille Museum for Photography, Amsterdam from 28 October 2023 to 25 February 2024
Description:
"Een afgelegen gebied in Kazachstan was ooit de thuisbasis van de belangrijkste nucleaire testfaciliteiten van de Sovjet-Unie. Het werd bekend als ‘The Polygon’. Op deze locatie vonden van 1949 tot 1989 meer dan 450 kernproeven plaats zonder rekening te houden met het effect ervan op de lokale bevolking en het milieu. De volledige impact van de straling werd pas duidelijk nadat de testlocatie begin jaren negentig werd gesloten. Verlatenheid en verval tekenen deze hoek van de Kazachse steppe. Het landschap is bezaaid met vreemde meren gevormd door nucleaire explosies en de overblijfselen van gigantische betonnen constructies. Het lijkt onbewoonbaar, en toch wonen er mensen, die onwaarschijnlijk veerkrachtig blijken."
"Eddo Hartmann's new photographic project focuses on one of the first 'sacrifice zones' created by governments in the late modern era for the secret production, testing and maintenance of nuclear and chemical weapons of all kinds. The residents of these locations unknowingly became guinea pigs in the experiment. Today, these areas have become examples of ecocide: the irreversible destruction of nature on a large scale. A remote area of Kazakhstan was once home to the Soviet Union's main nuclear testing facilities. It became known as 'The Polygon'. On this site more than 450 nuclear tests took place from 1949 to 1989, without regard for their effect on the local population and the environment. The full impact of the radiation only became apparent after the test site closed in the early 1990s. Today, this corner of the Kazakh steppe is a place of desolation and decay. The landscape is dotted with strange lakes formed by nuclear explosions and the remains of giant concrete structures. It seems uninhabitable, and yet people live there, demonstrating incredible resilience."--Publisher information