"Everything around us is made up of subjectivities and we live in a space in constant change. Time and space converge in the same dimension: that of the creator"[1].
Manuel Guerrero.
What happens when a fragment of a landscape from another country appears in the middle of the observed landscape? Is it possible to mix these two realities and appropriate them as if they were one? And if landscapes are subject to the emotional landscape of the observer, how does this affect our perception of reality? These are some of the questions that have accompanied me in the development of this work that consists in a dialogue between two territories, lived from a very intimate experience: the parting from the known (Colombia) and the arrival of the unknown (France).
In recent decades, the increased geographical mobility (whether voluntary or forced) has put at risk, or facilitated, the encounter with ourselves. The repetition of certain behaviors within the same territory, such as following the rules and customs of the collective imagination, is what allows us to build an identity. What happens then, when this identity is affected by the change of territory? In order to re-discover myself in the midst of this loss, I started to merge all these scenarios, physical or imaginary, that were present in front of me and mix those different landscapes (from Colombia and France) within the same image and then digitally draw on them.
I observed the new landscape for hours, walked on it, took it home, tried to remember the colors that I perceived, took pictures of it and destroyed its forms. As I was experimenting and drawing on them, I realized that I could fragment the landscapes, and that despite breaking them down, they still retained a vestige of their past within the new appearance. I decided to paint on them so that they would mix, so that the dissatisfaction of not being able to inhabit both territories at the same time would be healed, and so that the desire to possess them would calm down and rest in the contemplation of the living present, whichever it was. This process helped me understand where I was coming from and where I was. Also, it allowed me to take ownership of this multiplicity of environments (both lived and projected) and thus carry with greater sweetness the destabilizing effect of alienation.
What we see of the landscape is not only what appears spontaneously but also what we interpret of what is presented. Never, no matter how hard we try, can we see the landscape in its entirety. We always experience it in a fractional or incomplete way since the landscape is always subject to an interpretation: the interpretation of the observer who in turn is observed. Landscape and subject are transformed together in the midst of silence. Moreover, to think about the landscape is to think of ourselves, to bring us to the purest form of movement and to its existence independent of desire. Mobility offers us not only the possibility to be fragments of different landscapes, but also beings in constant transformation. What is left to us is the decision to look at it and look at ourselves within this particular experience that the contemplation of movement brings.
[1] Bachelard, G. “The Poetics of Space”. Beacon Press, 1992.
Work made of: 17 photographs
Location: Colombia / France