Big Dreams: Life Built on Gold, Ghana
| Wanneer: | ma 14-12-2015 12:00 - 13:00 |
| Waar: | Kapteynborg building, RUG, room 5419.0009 |
On Monday, 14 December 2015, Nii Obodai, guest of Bettina Van Hoven, will present a lunch seminar on Big Dreams: Life Built on Gold, Ghana. Nii Obodai, a photographer and artist who currently works on a project on gold mining in Ghana. A short abstract and links to his biography and work can be found by clicking on these links:
https://niiobodai.wordpress.com/about/
http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2012/dec/04/ghana-photography-nii-obodai
Extra information:
Gold makes up about 40 percent of external trade in Ghana, and has long been a part of its history. It was the gold trade that catalyzed the construction of imposing forts and castles along Ghana’s coast in the 1500s and 1600s, and it’s the gold trade that still wields power today. This project explores, with historical depth, the role gold mining plays in Ghana and the lives of its miners.
To a larger extent, it is a project on the relationship between people an land, between citizens and the state, and between Ghanaians and the rest of humanity. Through his photos of scarred landscape and rich, intricate characters, Nii Obodai rises above the mundane headlines of pollution and conflicts, humanizing a complex story about greed, redemption and the striving for existence.