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Sebastião Salgado. EXODUS.

  • Rwandan refugee camp of Benako. Tanzania. 1994. © Sebastião Salgado
    Rwandan refugee camp of Benako. Tanzania. 1994. © Sebastião Salgado
  • Water supplies are often far away from the refugee camps. Goma, Zaire. 1994. © Sebastião Salgado
    Water supplies are often far away from the refugee camps. Goma, Zaire. 1994. © Sebastião Salgado
  • At the Ivankovo train station 120 refugees live in a train. Croatia. 1994. © Sebastião Salgado
    At the Ivankovo train station 120 refugees live in a train. Croatia. 1994. © Sebastião Salgado
  • At the Natinga School camp for displaced Sudanese. Southern Sudan. 1995. © Sebastião Salgado
    At the Natinga School camp for displaced Sudanese. Southern Sudan. 1995. © Sebastião Salgado
  • The beach of Vung Tau, formerly named Cap Saint Jacques, from where the majority of boat people left. Southern Vietnam. 1995. © Sebastião Salgado
    The beach of Vung Tau, formerly named Cap Saint Jacques, from where the majority of boat people left. Southern Vietnam. 1995. © Sebastião Salgado
  • Church Gate Station, Bombay (Mumbai). India. 1995. © Sebastião Salgado
    Church Gate Station, Bombay (Mumbai). India. 1995. © Sebastião Salgado
  • The once-prestigious Jade Maiwan Avenue. Kabul, Afghanistan. 1996. © Sebastião Salgado
    The once-prestigious Jade Maiwan Avenue. Kabul, Afghanistan. 1996. © Sebastião Salgado
  • At the Kamaz camp for displaced Afghans. Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan. 1996. © Sebastião Salgado
    At the Kamaz camp for displaced Afghans. Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan. 1996. © Sebastião Salgado
  • Construction of the Rasuna complex in the commercial and financial district of Kuningan. Jakarta, Indonesia. 1996. © Sebastião Salgado
    Construction of the Rasuna complex in the commercial and financial district of Kuningan. Jakarta, Indonesia. 1996. © Sebastião Salgado
  • Scene near the Marubo Maronal village. State of Amazonas, Brazil. 1998. © Sebastião Salgado
    Scene near the Marubo Maronal village. State of Amazonas, Brazil. 1998. © Sebastião Salgado
  • The men having migrated to the cities, the women carry their goods to the market of Chimbote. Region of Chimborazo. Ecuador. 1998. © Sebastião Salgado
    The men having migrated to the cities, the women carry their goods to the market of Chimbote. Region of Chimborazo. Ecuador. 1998. © Sebastião Salgado

Sebastião Salgado. "EXODUS" is an exhibition that highlights how Salgado urgently campaigned for social justice and peace, and long before he gained wide public acclaim with his project "GENESIS" or the documentary, "The Salt of the Earth" (2014) by Wim Wenders. In the photographic series "EXODUS", Salgado documents the dark side of the modern age: the ruthless exploitation of nature and the fate of millions of people on the run who are struggling to survive under the most degrading conditions. Salgado was so affected by this immense suffering that it robbed him of the will to live. Exhausted and disillusioned, he stopped taking photos for several years. However, his wife Lélia Salgado suggested that they reforest the rainforest. In 1998 they founded the Istituto Terra and since then have replanted more than 2.5 million trees. The paradise that Salgado knew as a child had once again emerged. With nature returning, they regained hope and resolved to show others that it is worth getting involved. The idea for the internationally exhibited photographic project "GENESIS" arose (at Kunstfoyer Munich, 2015). This body of work is a much more optimistic view of the same earth that Salgado witnessed for so long as injured and destroyed.

In 2019 Salgado received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. In doing so, the association and its members honoured the Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, "an exceptional visual artist who has continually campaigned on behalf of peace and social justice and whose entire photographic oeuvre lends a sense of urgency to the global debate surrounding nature conservation and environmental protection. With his ongoing work at the Instituto Terra, he also continues to make a direct contribution to the restoration and revitalisation of biodiversity and ecosystems. The photographs of Sebastião Salgado have been showcased in innumerable exhibitions and books, many of which show communities strongly rooted in their traditional natural environments, while others portray individuals violently uprooted by war and climate catastrophe. As a consequence of his considerable body of work, Sebastião Salgado has succeeded in raising worldwide awareness for the fate of labourers and migrants as well as for the living conditions of indigenous peoples. By describing his often breathtaking and characteristically black-and-white photographs as an "homage to the grandeur of nature" and by capturing in equal measure both the fragile beauty and environmental destruction of our earth, Sebastião Salgado offers us the opportunity to recognise our planet as a habitat for living creatures, that is, as a home that does not belong to us alone, and one that we must take every effort to preserve."

"EXODUS" was curated by Lélia Wanick Salgado. The exhibition features 170 large-format black and white photographs. Additionally, visitors can view the ZDF footage documenting the Peace Prize award ceremony with Sebastião Salgado. Filmed at St Paul's Church in Frankfurt on October 20, 2019, it also includes the photographer's message of thanks.

Due to Covid19 restrictions, all visitors must pre-book tickets online. These are available from the Versicherungskammer Kulturstiftung website and are bookable up to a week in advance.