The Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow (MAMM) in Russia is currently presenting Edoardo Delille, Giulia Piermartiri - Atlas of the New World, which is on from April 13 - August 18, 2024, and is curated by guest curator Olga Daniele. The exhibition presents the long-term photographic project Atlas of the New World which the Italian photographer duo Delille and Piermartiri began in 2019. The project explores the consequences of climate change across Asia, Africa, Europe and North America, through photographs of people living in the most vulnerable regions in each continent superimposed with imagery suggesting what those parts of the world could look like at the end of the 21st Century. Delille and Piermartiri join STIR in an interview that explores the project in depth.

The duo introduce Atlas of the New World, telling STIR, “When we started this project, we asked ourselves ‘Who knows what the map of the world will be like at the end of the century?’” Indeed, some of the most radical transformations on the world map will only be visible within a few decades. So then, we asked ourselves how we could represent these future changes with photography, which usually tells us about the present.”

Delille and Piermartiri immersed themselves in climate data from the United Nations, identifying six areas as the most vulnerable in the world. These include the Maldives, California in the United States, the Mont Blanc massif in France, Mozambique in Africa, parts of China that border the Yangtze River such as the city of Chongqing and parts of Russia, such as its capital city Moscow. The photographer duo continues,  “For each place visited, we searched for images of the landscape that could represent this transformation. These were then inserted into a flash projector synchronised with our camera. Through this technique, at the moment of shooting, the camera records the real scene with the people portrayed, onto which the image of the future landscape is superimposed, projected for an instant by the flash.”

“...the world we have represented will be the world in which these children will live. Today more than ever we need new generations to grow up with the idea that the planet must be preserved. – Edoardo Delille and Giulia Piermartiri

The result of Delille and Piermartiri’s efforts are a series of captivating, dream-like photographs that blend the present and the perceived future. Beyond the environmentalist impulse of the project, these images stand strong on their artistic merits as well. They are striking and carry a palpable urgency to them. Some works from the project also carry a morbidly humorous quality that only makes them all the more disquieting.

The duo believe in the communicative potential of their photography. They allow the colourful and psychedelic imagery in Atlas of the New World to draw in audiences, who then realise that there is an apocalyptic warning that underpins the visual information they are confronted with. They tell STIR, “[Our photographs are] a fundamental tool of knowledge. We created them so that the message is first understood and then spread. Adults and children are equally attracted by these dream images, but only the former can help the latter understand their meaning. And it is important that this type of communication occurs because the world we have represented will be the world in which these children will live. Today, more than ever, we need new generations to grow up with the idea that the planet must be preserved.”

Delille and Piermartiri’s series is stunning and requires immediate attention from viewers within and beyond the art world. Atlas of the New World is a timely body of work, arriving at a historical moment where several major cities around the world such as New Delhi and Beijing have become borderline uninhabitable. Time will tell whether or not the inhabitants of such at-risk places in the world can expect any reprieve, however as Atlas of the New World so masterfully illustrates, time is not on our side.

‘Atlas of the New World’ is on from April 13 - August 18, 2024 at The Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow.