PURSUIT: Alice Miceli
Chernobyl Project

With the first solo publication of the Brazilian born and Berlin based artist Alice Miceli, SEVERAL PURSUITS presents a collection of materials accumulated throughout her involvement with the Chernobyl Project, which has been shown internationally in exhibitions and festivals at different stages of its development. The complete work was on view at the 29th Bienal de São Paulo 2010.

“The aim of the Chernobyl Project is to create a radiographic series of images of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, depicting the most affected regions within that area, located on the Belarusian side of the border. Images imprinted by the very invisible radiation that has contaminated the area since the Chernobyl disaster, 24 years ago, on April 26th, 1986. Specific images of an abandoned place… yet filled by an extensive energy, an invisible matter existing everywhere in that environment, yet totally invisible except for the destruction traces it leaves behind.” (Alice Miceli)

Miceli travelled to Belarus several times over a period of three years and this publication combines collected photographs from her travels to the exclusion zone around the reactor, subjective personal readings and official documents such as visas that have become key elements of the project itself.

The documents gathered in the publication, usually withheld from the exhibition visitor, define the scope of social, political and personal parameters encountered and their essential role within the project and its development. Similar to the proceedings within her photographic and cinematic works, here the inconspicuous or invisible is being made visible by questioning what is considered to be normal.

The publication is therefore not only an integral part of the work along with the films and negatives that have so far formed the Chernobyl Project, but allow a deeper insight into the thoughts and work processes of the artist and her examination of the experiences and encounters beyond the creation of the final exhibition works.

On the occasion of the book launch the artist Alice Miceli gave a talk on the final project at HEROES on July 23 2010 in Berlin.