In the scientific context, the term Anthropocene is increasingly used. The term refers to a new age of the Earth that is determined by humans. This is due to the various interventions by mankind on biological, geological and atmospheric processes. As a result, the primordial nature of nature is being questioned by man and increasingly influenced by his interventions.

Human interventions, as well as the view that the earth possesses almost inexhaustible natural resources, influence the processes taking place in the Alpine region and at the same time form the trigger for the associated, serious consequences. These do not manifest themselves in natural disasters, as is erroneously assumed, but rather lead to “natural” reactions. The global natural landscape does not act with threat, but shows reactions in its own form. Humans have always tried to resist these processes. The increasingly frequent occurrences testify to the long-term effects of humans on the ecosystem. A field of tension between man and the natural environment is the result.

The free work “movement in the alpine landscape” is an artistic examination of various processes in the alpine mountain landscape. The result is a fragmentary inventory that refers to various scientific facts. For this purpose, various topics such as rockfall, thawing of the permafrost or man-made protective measures are processed in an artistic form of representation. The focus is on the perception of the various alpine natural hazards and the connection to human intervention in order to mitigate, predict or even completely contain the natural hazards. By means of specially created situations, the visual artist Pedro Rodrigues constructs new ways of interpretation. The starting point for the work is the geological changes taking place in the mountains. 

Due to global warming, glaciers, which are often used to illustrate climate change, are disappearing all over the world. However, this is also associated with other effects that are often ignored. This is where the work should start and create a more complex approach to the changes taking place.

Many different languages are heard on the streets of Zermatt. Portuguese is one of them. A language, however, that is not spoken by the many tourists, but by the many guest workers in the village. In order to cope with mass tourism, the tourism construct depends on many workers, mostly foreigners. In Zermatt, mainly Portuguese. Of the approximately 5,460 villagers, 950 Portuguese live in Zermatt and another 580 in the neighbouring village of Täsch.

The majority of this foreign community works in the hotel industry, mainly in housekeeping. It is these people who maintain the pure-looking hotel atmosphere and keep the rooms looking good without making an appearance. Because of this impersonal aspect, there is also no association with people. The cleaned room is taken for granted.

These are people seeking financial happiness in an alien environment. Many come for an indefinite period, some stay for life. The driving force is always the return to the home country, which, however, often remains unattainable due to the financial commitment. This leaves only the shoulder season, when the majority of Portuguese return to their homeland and are able to quench their homesickness, saudade, a little.

It is women and men who stand for the Portuguese community in Zermatt and make their presence felt through this work.

Through erosion and rockfalls, new voids are continually created in alpine regions. In landscape ecology, such natural voids are considered dynamic zones where processes like vegetation change occur. However, through construction measures, these spaces are increasingly filled, covered, or reshaped with artificial materials, which alters natural developments in the long term. What remains are traces of human intervention. This process symbolically represents the interaction between natural environments and human influence.

In the work CONTROL OF NATURAL SPACE, presented here for the first time, Pedro Rodrigues explores the transformation of alpine natural landscapes, particularly through the construction of infrastructure aimed at mitigating natural hazards. In this context, protective structures reduce potential risks and highlight the role of control that contemporary society exerts over natural spaces.

Last year, 4.66 million passenger cars were registered for road use in Switzerland. According to the Federal Statistical Office, the average age of passenger cars in Switzerland is 8.4 years.

However, most vehicles are resold and slightly refurbished for export, largely to avoid the administrative burden and disposal costs. Because the guidelines for vehicle registration are constantly being tightened, more and more end-of-life vehicles will be produced in the future. The direction of export is often based on the sales price. The largest buyers of end-of-life vehicles are South America, Asia and West Africa. Despite existing environmental standards and a free trade agreement with the EU that is supposed to regulate and control the road registration of end-of-life vehicles, large quantities of end-of-life vehicles continue to end up on the roads worldwide. The agreed guidelines are repeatedly not controlled or circumvented with handouts. This results in an unregulated export of environmentally harmful vehicles.

End-of-life vehicles are often in a substandard condition that not only pollutes the environment but also endangers the lives of the occupants as well as other road users. Our efforts to replace end-of-life vehicles with new and environmentally friendly ones also increase the number of end-of-life vehicles.

The problem is dealt with in Switzerland, but continues to exist in other countries through our export and consumption behaviour. This merely shifts pollution and health burdens and significantly impedes efforts to mitigate climate change. This is a pattern that is more often seen in climate policy. 

The pictures illustrate the cycle of end-of-life vehicles. Among other things, vehicles are shown that were offered for sale in Swiss advertisements with the note “For Export”. Above these pictures, there are covered vehicles that represent valuable mobility as end-of-life vehicles in Senegal and Guniea Bissau. 

Preservation extends the life of end-of-life vehicles or vehicles will vegetate in this form in the landscape for many years. The polluting effects will remain and continue for years. At the same time, tonnes of valuable raw materials are lost every year and are thus not recycled in a clean cycle.

The “A9 Untertags” project would create a somewhat different documentary. It focuses exclusively on the unfinished construction of the A9 motorway. The goal of this construction project of the century is to connect the Lower and Upper Valais, but the exact construction time is still uncertain.  

In the photographic work, the underground construction phase is accompanied over a longer period of time. The focus is on the lighting atmosphere in the motorway tubes. It reflects a surreal and alien lighting atmosphere that we would not put together in this context. This makes it possible for outsiders to access this unusual intermediate state. 

As soon as the first cars roll over the motorway, this own lighting mood escapes and the monotonous lighting mood becomes present as we know it.

With the third Rhone correction, measures are being pursued to restore the beginnings of a natural watercourse. But is this still possible at all? Can the significant changes we have made to nature be restored? 

In the project “how a river should flow” refers to human intervention in the natural course of the Rhone. 

Photographs of reflecting water surfaces are re-embedded in an installation process on the banks of the Rhone. The unnatural materialities create idiosyncratic sculptures that attempt to enter into a connection with nature. The result is a dialogue with the natural originality of water bodies, which are constantly being altered by human intervention. The unusual and surreal watercourses stand in contrast to the assumption that nature can be controlled by man.