Dreaming Sunset
2021
2021
Dreaming Sunset was born from the desire to explore the boundaries between memory and presence through a visual journey that unfolds over time and space during the final days of the Tajogaite volcano eruption on the island of La Palma in December 2021.
In its last days, the volcano no longer displayed spectacular explosive phenomena. The lava flows had diminished compared to previous months. However, clouds of smoke, ash, and pyroclasts continued to pour out constantly from the mouth of the volcano. These volcanic clouds merged with the atmospheric ones, creating a towering barrier that divided the island between east and west, like an extension of the mountains stretching towards the sky.
On the western side, shadows dominated until sunset. It was only then, as the sun dipped toward the horizon, that its rays managed to pierce the thick smoke, illuminating the coast and the mountain, revealing landscapes marked by destruction yet wrapped in an almost surreal light. Colors transformed, contrasts intensified, and every element of the landscape seemed suspended between devastation and a melancholic beauty.
The photographic sequence unfolds through a visual dialogue between natural and industrial elements, between the organic and the artificial. Each diptych represents an interaction, a connection between the force of nature and human presence, between sky and earth, between the sea and the hinterland. Shadows stretch, colors saturate, and light carves out details like a brush on a canvas.
On the western side, shadows dominated until sunset. It was only then, as the sun dipped toward the horizon, that its rays managed to pierce the thick smoke, illuminating the coast and the mountain, revealing landscapes marked by destruction yet wrapped in an almost surreal light. Colors transformed, contrasts intensified, and every element of the landscape seemed suspended between devastation and a melancholic beauty.
The photographic sequence unfolds through a visual dialogue between natural and industrial elements, between the organic and the artificial. Each diptych represents an interaction, a connection between the force of nature and human presence, between sky and earth, between the sea and the hinterland. Shadows stretch, colors saturate, and light carves out details like a brush on a canvas.
Dreaming Sunset is a dreamlike journey into a place that, though scarred by fire and ash, conveys a sense of suspension and beauty, as if time had expanded in the last breath of an infinite sunset.
QUARANTA. Collective Exhibition at Contesto Studio, 2023.
