Alex Majoli
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Fight for Peace & One Win Leads to Another: Resolving Conflict Peacefully and Promoting Gender Equality Through Sport
Known for his documentation of the human condition in various conflicts worldwide, Alex Majoli has worked extensively in Brazil to capture the darker side of a complex society where daily life is often shaped by hardship and violence. In 2018, he visited two organisations active in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro that are dedicated to helping suspend aggression and give mutual respect a space to grow through sport. Fight for Peace is an international NGO that uses boxing and martial arts combined with education and personal development to help realise the potential of young people in communities affected by crime and violence.
One Win Leads to Another is a programme created in collaboration by the International Olympic Committee and UN Women, which provides girls and young women from vulnerable communities in Rio with access to sport and education through weekly sports practice and leadership training. The programme creates safe spaces for girls to overcome social barriers and build life-skills in the areas of leadership, sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender-based violence prevention, financial literacy and economic empowerment.
Biography
Alex Majoli (b. 1971, Italy) is a member of Magnum Photos (2001). He documents the thin line between reality and theatre exploring the human condition and the darker elements of society. He is the recipient of the 2016 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and was awarded an Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography in New York in 2003. Major recent solo exhibitions include, Andante (2018) at the Museo d'Arte della città di Ravenna (MAR) and SKĒNĒ (2018) at Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York and exhibitions at Les Rencontres d’Arles (2015 & 2018)
Books include Congo (Aperture, 2015) co-authored with Paolo Pellegrin, Libera Me (Trolley Books, 2010) and his first monograph Leros (Trolley Books, 2013) on the now shuttered asylum on the island of Leros, Greece. This early work and interest in psychiatric care led him to Brazil which marked the beginning of a 20-year, on-going project called ‘Tudo Bom’.
He is currently working on a project about the fragmentation and polarization of European identity. He is represented by Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York.