Pompeii. 79 AD.

Places speak to us about what occurred. Ruins are erected like the traces of an expanding past, for we can witness the passing of time here more than anywhere else. Even so, the present struggles for its evidence; it uncovers the wound between two true presences. The past and present meld together. Time as we know it ceases to exist as both dimensions remain camouflaged.

Pompeii has turned into the staging of a scene, and man is its viewer, unknowing that it will become a spectacle. Before us we have the veil of ambiguity, one of confrontation between memory and experience. The folds of this memory play their part in diluting the tragedy of the event.  We are witness to human fragility without forsaking ignorance.

Nostalgia remains blurry. The traces here already belong to the present.

Joana E. Sendra Alemany

Silenced Land is a reflection on the muteness and mutilation that starts when vulneration takes place between the vital relationship between man and natural surroundings. It is a portrayal of the absence of life as a need to pay attention and care for the eco-system. But above all, it is a tour through the universe of silence and the fragility surrounding it.
An exploration of the identity of the landscape marked by a tragic event. Looking at those places that have been witnesses of a dramatic event searching for the hidden scar, the invisible thumb print. Something appears behind the apparent normality as an unsolved enigma. The quietness of a burnt forest turns into something disquieting, in a sort of uncertainty, of questioning. A chilling beauty covers the horror and catastrophe. What substitutes the disaster is the image of a mute place inhabited by half uttered words, murmurs, whispers…
A ray of sun crosses the column of charred trees and some ivy creeps up a trunk. What happens in the photo places us in a borderline place between life and death, the soundlessness and noise, commotion and peacefulness. The identity of the landscape is also located in the limits of its definition, between spectrality and reality. The confluence of opposing sentiments and the contradiction of concepts mark a fine line where the gaze is located and reflection starts. The images are captured at the moment after the climax, when the flames have devastated the forests and there is no apparent signs of life. From this view point a tale on fragility begins to be constructed.
Mireia A. Puigventós