Die große Verdrängung

Can our world still be saved? This is the question posed by Roberto Grossi’s graphic essay “Die große Verdrängung”. In a compelling way, he combines personal experiences with scientific findings on species extinction, climate catastrophe, and economic, social and societal aspects. As a child, Grossi often spent time in the Alps. Now, as he seeks to show his own children the beauty of the mountains and glaciers, he becomes painfully aware of the scale of the climate catastrophe. But is it right to use such strikingly beautiful images to convey this? It is necessary. For it is in this way that Grossi brings home to us, with particular poignancy, the extent of the loss. A frequent stylistic device here is the use of split pages, which either classically juxtapose developments – the glacier as it was just a few years ago and what remains of it today – or create associative visual parallels, such as plastic waste in the sea and floating corpses, birds on power lines and refugees on a border fence ... Unlike bare facts, images make the catastrophe tangible. Grossi wants us to stop turning a blind eye. He wants to shake us up.