David Bart / Abjure

In 1633, crumbling under the pressure of the dominant power, the Christian church, Galileo renounced his theory that the earth revolves around the sun. He abjured. To abjure is to shun one’s beliefs in order to submit to the ideals maintained by authority. With this series, David Bart questions the ways in which we use the world and he takes into consideration that natural resources and life in general are disappearing. Today, the market economy represents this dominant power. The liberal system is based on the exhaustion of our planet’s non-renewable natural resources. Bart draws a parallel between mainstream thought in Galileo’s lifetime and our days. He uses engravings and illustrations from the book, Astronomie populaire written by Camille Flammarion in the 19th century, which had at the time prophesized the distant future. David Bart thinks it was already a contemporary vision, if we aren’t mindful about our planet and its future. (if we further abjure about the current economic system)