VASTE PROGRAMME
Italy
The Long Way Home of Ivan Putnik, Truck Driver
Shaped as a visual diary, The Long Way Home of Ivan Putnik, Truck Driver tells the story of a Russian truck driver and his long journey to return home, driving across all of Siberia and taking hundreds of pictures with notes alongside them. Presented as an archive, all the images are cropped screengrabs, taken from photographs shot by various amateur photographers who have uploaded the photospheres to Google Maps. Although the work was born from the pure pleasure of wonderment at the images, with no intention of any protest, issues related to climate change seem to appear everywhere as we discover territories that are now extremely relevant in maintaining the geopolitical and environmental balance of the planet. Gas pipelines, ports, mines, uncontrolled exploitation of resources and the movement of goods and materials are so widespread that clicking randomly on Google Maps is enough to find them in front of us. The Long Way Home of Ivan Putnik, Truck Driver was published by The Eriskay Connection in 2021.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Vaste Programme is an artistic trio based in Rome. It was born from a 2017 encounter between Giulia Vigna (b.1992), Leonardo Magrelli (b.1989) and Alessandro Tini (b.1988). Their research focuses on post-photography and new media. Materials and objects which we seldom pay attention to, that belong to the most common aspects of everyday life are used and combined with the adoption and re-circulation of found images in order to reveal unforeseen aspects and new meanings. Vaste Programme’s works were exhibited at numerous galleries and photo festivals in Italy, Holland, Ukraine and in the United States.
