Les traces énigmatiques des autres

Les traces énigmatiques des autres

BY FIONA SEGADÃES DA SILVA

In «les traces énigmatiques des autres» a semi-contemplative approach is taken to maintain our conflicting relationship with the gradual destruction of the living things. This ongoing project, like a bad omen, emphasize our helplessness and uncertainty when it comes to the living world that we have dissociated from. An underlying tension among the images is created by impending catastrophe and palpable chaos, while silent phenomena form a wavering atmosphere. By captu- ring living landscapes, a deeper reflection on our vulnerability as individuals occurs. Could the photographic act channel the emotional tension of a vulnerable living body? We must develop the ability to sense a profound connection with the natural and organic world that surrounds us and perhaps images contribute to this intention. Everything is based on observations of decontextualized places that transports us to a dimension that is both tense and mysterious.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Fiona Segadães Da Silva (b.1995) is a photographer and an image book publisher. She currently lives and works in Le Havre (France). Her practice is built by a sensitive and tangible approach to the images. She is particularly interested in our ways of haunting bodies and spaces, our relationships with the living things and mental health. Her photographic work focuses on sensory perceptions and non-verbal projections. Freshly graduated with honors in 2022, since then her work was published in international group publications and part of some collective exhibitions.

Website
https://fionasegadaesdasilva.fr/

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/segadaesdasilvafiona/

Fill line

Fill line

BY KATYA YANOVA

It's said that the universe always makes a sound, but we cannot hear it because we are born in it.

I was born in the year when my country ceased to exist and became another country. Just as my dad taught our dog to bark his last name syllable by syllable, so did my country learn to be called a different name and live in a new way. I was simply learning to live in the place where I was born. 
These days I think more and more about what my parents and teachers put into defining me as "good" or "bad." How much of "me" was in a snowflake costume at a New Year's Eve party in the kindergarten or at the church service with my grandmother. How much "me" was at school assembly in a brown dress with a white apron, how much was at the seasonal potato harvest down in the country, how much was at the family holiday with the chimes announcing the beginning of a new year, how much "me" are there in each step of the bright green entrance hall of our five-story condo? 
More often I think about what are the actor of my statements and the true agents of intentions? Thoughts are dependent on a system of linguistic, cultural and social rules. To feel means to manifest true experiences and unconsciously transmit meanings. Who is the author of signs, symbols, codes, precise structures, templates?  Just a flickering portrait of the motives and reasons accumulated by memory and consciousness to do one way and not the other. Perhaps I am only a part of a collective formed by time, where it is no longer possible to define the boundaries of personal contribution and highlight one's own "I".

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

The key themes of my artistic practice are related to issues of agency, problems of communication and the human impact of traumatic events. I work with long-term photographic projects, combining with installation form, sculpture, performative video and sound. I am interested in the image of the contemporary person experiencing emotional instability, transitional states between stages of personal and social development. Using and rethinking my lived experience, exploring the elements of my personal archive, as if being an indicator, I emphasize the problems and crises of my generation.

Website
www.yanovakatya.com

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/nichaykat/

Anomie

ANOMIE

BY QUINTIN H. O’CONNELL

Anomie, the title of this series, refers to a concept rooted in Durkheimian sociology. It denotes a state characterized by weakened normative bonds between individuals and the broader community, leading to moral ambiguity and alienation.

Émile Durkheim's exploration of anomie in the context of suicide rates revealed a critical connection between social integration and normative regulation. Anomie represented a void where social norms conflicted with the internal motives of individuals, causing discontent and ennui. In fact, the modern world is plagued by unheard of rates of depression and suicide.

In this series, O’Connell focuses on his own anomic sentiments. Namely, the disconnect experienced as one embedded within a culture which normalizes behaviors that harm the global ecosystem and thwart personal growth and flourishing; a culture which privileges consumption over poise and meaning.

Yet, amidst the sense of anomie, the series aims to unravel a veiled beauty concealed within solitary and quiet moments. It contemplates the mysterious allure of nature, inviting viewers to reflect on a delicate harmony that still exists within the unsettling dissonance of our modern world.

Serving as both a visual and philosophical exploration, Anomie offers a pensive journey into the transformative power of photography as not only a means of escape, but also self-overcoming and valuation.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Quintin H. O’Connell developed the Anomie series in 2023 alongside his undergraduate studies at the University of Florida, where he obtained his BA in Sociology and Philosophy. Born in 1998, O’Connell is a budding American artist working in photography. His images attempt to reach into the complexities of the human condition, exploring themes of identity, belonging, and the timeless human pursuit of a meaningful life.

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/eliadesqu/

Rain Continues to Fall

Rain Continues to Fall

by Dom Ashton

This body of work is an acknowledgment of our innate connection to the earth. A reminder of our need to love the natural world as an extension of ourselves. An invitation to de-centre ourselves from our illusory perspective of the world. The images also search for how we can accept and embrace mortality, and the ephemeral nature of our own consciousness, as part of our role as living beings. Perhaps we can find solace in knowing that long after we have returned to the earth, something continues - the birds sing, the wind moves through the trees, and the rain will continue to fall.

Bio

Dom Ashton is a photographer from the north west of England, currently living in the midlands. Using a combination of digital and analogue techniques, their quiet images evoke environmentalist and existential themes such as entropy, transience, and humanity's place within nature.

Website: https://www.domashton.co.uk/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/domashton_/

Echoes

Echoes

by Náhir Capêlo

Nas transformações e interações entre matérias existe algo de muito interior, algo que vem de dentro e regressa de fora. Torna-se difícil definir extremidades e limites entre as coisas. Entre aquilo que rodeia e aquilo que é rodeado, aquilo que contém e o que é contido, entre a lava e a rocha ou entre o mar e a poça.

Bio

Náhir Capêlo frequentou o Curso de Artes Visuais - Fotografia da Escola Superior Artística do Porto (2015-2018) e o mestrado em Artes Plásticas- Intermédia da FBAUP. Participou no ciclo de performances de Hamish Fulton organizado pela Mezzanine no Porto (2017). Integrou as exposições coletivas "Do Not Touch Fresh Paint" (2018) com curadoria de Juan Luis Toboso no Espaço Mira; "Playlist #25" (2018) projeto curatorial de Nuno Ramalho no Café Candelabro; na exposição "Da utilidade e desvantagem da história para a vida" (2019) com curadoria de Eduarda Neves (Ci.Clo Bienal de Fotografia do Porto). Integra o projecto curatorial DA ABSTRACÇÃO [ou a ocupação em demasia com um objecto].

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nahi.ir/

Dream Moons

Dream Moons

by Yurian Quintanas Nobel

A full moon was watching me in my sleep, but I could not see her in my dream. She traveled throught the spaces to pull me into her world. She found me alone and caught me unprepared.

Her gravitational pull was effecting everything, the way it effects the oceans. Although everything looked unestable and confusing, I knew that from this moment on she was in custody of my being.

Unreachable sunny day outside. A thin mesh kept it far. I felt lost and dazed. Something happened in the past. Why did the sun looked so dark inside?

My house looked like a maze, a tenebrous shelter where nobody could enter but that was harder to leave. I walked through its corridors and up and down the stairs, but I couldn’t reach the exit. Darkness everywhere.

Fear unsettled me as a deadly poison, but I knew it was a subtle and breakable trap. I just had to follow the traces that time had left behind and repair its damage.

Everything around me was fading away, like if somebody had invoked a devastating mechanism to erase all that I harbored in my brain.

A distant squeak, muffled breath of a starving beast. This was the place where everything started, but now nobody was there. I left the most essential of my self and fled with the moon to settle somewhere else. An unknown state of silence and dust.

Bio

Yurian Quintanas Nobel was born in Amsterdam in 1983, but he grew in Catalunya (Spain), where he is currently living. His personal photographic projects are focused on using photography to approach the intangible, the hidden side of life, and explore its mysteries.

Yurian’s works has been exhibited internationally and has been chosen for awards like the SFR Jeunes Talents for ParisPhoto (2014), the Open Call award of the Encontros da Imagem (2015) and the selection as LensCulture Emerging Talent (2018) among others.

Website: https://yurianquintanas.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yurian_quintanas/

Book: https://void.photo/dreammoons

Walk by day because night is ours

Walk by day because night is ours

by Alejandra Vacuii

Galicia, a Spanish region in the Northwest, is a territory of myths and superstitions that go back to the night of time. One of these legends is La Santa Compaña, a procession of souls led by a living person with a cross who goes out every night through the woods announcing death. There is only one way to get rid of their curse: meet another living person and give them the cross. In the sepulchral silence that occurs as it appears, it can only be heard from time to time some soul screaming "walk by day because the night is ours!".

Today, pessimism and hopelessness seem to have settled in Western societies as a response to the economic, health, ecological and moral crises that we have been chaining for years. As hauntology predicted, there is a general feeling that the future has been cancelled: we can no longer imagine a better future, the idea of progress has disappeared, and instead of feeling that the world is improving it seems that we are headed towards disaster without warning. The fear floats in the air as if something terrible is going to happen, is the end of the world near?

Walk by day because the night is ours tells the metaphorical story of this omen. Through the legend of La Santa Compaña, which has been a warning that death was near when the Galician people still believed in the supernatural, this project tells us about this pessimistic hunch that is contaminating our current feeling. Something dark, mournful and terrible is about to happen. Like the people who were with La Santa Compaña in the middle of a dark and silent forest, we are being warned of the arrival of death. 

Bio

Alejandra Vacuii (1987) is a Spanish visual artist based in A Coruña (Spain). She is graduated in Artistic Photography and has completed her MA in Photographic Creation at Escuela Lens where she was awarded with a scholarship in 2021. In her work, she's looking for a poetic space where she can express herself through dense and mysterious images. Her projects revolve around abstract sensations and emotions such as loss, melancholy, nostalgia or anxiety. 

She has participated in multiple exhibitions in Europe since 2009 (Istanbul, Berlin, Madrid). Her work has been reviewed in numerous digital media (Fisheye Magazine, Phroom Platform, C41 Magazine, Sola Journal). She has been selected to participate in photo festivals such as Getxophoto, Descubrimientos PHotoESPAÑA, SCAN Tarragona or Imaginària. She has publish her work in different collective publications and recently her project La Mala Fortuna was published by UFCA Collective (2023) as a printed work in the fanzine Fotofobia. 

Website: https://www.alejandravacuii.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lamalafortuna/

Mycophilia

Mycophilia

by Nika Sandler

In "The Romance of the Fungus World", researchers Rolfe write that in literature, folklore and science, fungus are often associated with pestilence, death and decay, and their physicality appears creepy and repulsive. In this series, I move away from the mycophobic images of fungoid entities in terms of conventional ideas and show their ability to be creative and hospitable. I depict fungus as being like unearthly creatures, as in myths and theories about their cosmic origin.

Bio

Nika Sandler is an artist working with photography and text. She explores the themes of human and non-human gaze, gender, pleasure, creepy and disgusting. She was published in the magazines i-D, Libération, Der Greif, Phroom Platform, Calvert Journal, Metal Magazine, L'Oeil de la Photographie, BROAD, Bird in Flight, FK Magazine, F-STOP, Float Magazine, ect. She is also the winner of the Small File Photo Festival 2023 organized by The Photographers' Gallery.

Website: https://sites.google.com/view/nikasandler/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nika.sandler/?hl=pt

Born and Raised

Born and Raised

by Vlad Bulenkov

As a child, I thought that when I become an adult, I would also have children. And back then it seemed that this moment was very far away, and as if it would never come. I did not imagine myself as someone else, someone bigger and more important than I am. Now I am still the same as I was when I was 31 years old. But there is a feeling of anxiety and expectation from things familiar to the eye. Outwardly, nothing has changed, but everything seems to be different. Imminent changes excite me and inflame the atmosphere around me. And I feel like time is speeding up, the gap between me and me in the new role of a father is shortening. I’ve heard a lot from friends about what it’s like to have a baby. Now I can only imagine what will await me in the future after my son is born.

Bio

Vlad Bulenkov is a visual artist. He was born in Leningrad, based in St. Petersburg. He studied at the faculty of photojournalists named after. Yu.A. Galperin and the school of modern photography Docdocdoc. He is a participant of group exhibitions and a finalist of international competitions.

Website: https://vbulenkov.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deubrazil/

AFAR

AFAR

by Büşra Kuzu

A child who tried to start over every time but couldn't break away from the past as she kept trying to recall all of it, all over again. Despite her poor memory, she is always on the lookout for the best capture she can memorize. She is a distant watcher; seeking, tracking, and observing from afar.

Bio

Büşra Kuzu is a 25-year-old photographer who also likes to call herself a "visual experiencer". Not like any other people, she takes pleasure in delving into the past, making real stories out of it with what she photographs today. She's been also writing about mental imagery - mental representation and how these are related to photographic images, which she hopes one day she can turn into a comprehensive work. 

Website: https://busrakuzu.net/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/busrakuzuu/

Wavering

Wavering

by Josef Kovac

Oscillating between real and surreal, fighting with loneliness and longing for deeper human connection. Moments of epiphany get rarer and searching for them becomes an obsession, that rush of happiness and satisfaction that floods the brain for a moment is addictive and becomes another emotional longing. The constant remnants of unpleasant personality traits from the past, those that you thought had disappeared with maturity. Up and down, up and down like a rollercoaster seeming to move forward towards the void of a future but feeling caught in an unbreakable repetitive loop.

Artist statement

Bio

Josef Kovac (*1982, former Czechoslovakia) is a photographer and artist currently situated in Gothenburg, Sweden. He pursued his photography education at the Institute of Technology in Dublin, Ireland, as well as at the HDK-Valand Academy of Art and Design in Gothenburg, Sweden. Kovac’s artistic focus lies in exploring the dynamic between photographic images and fiction. He achieves this by transforming everyday objects and spaces into new narratives, thereby prompting a reevaluation of how these elements interact. Through his work, Kovac challenges our perceptions of the relationship between photographs and fictional storytelling, using ordinary subjects to create new imaginative contexts.

Website: https://josefkovac.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josef_kovac/

Iceland Ahoy!

Iceland Ahoy!

by Przemyslaw Mioduszewski

I always want to capture surroundings and my personal life on camera. Most of the photographs show me in raw surroundings where I fight for survival, becoming wild and mismatched in the nature with an absolute inability to find myself in a rough terrain.

Artist statement

Bio

I was born in Łapy, a small town in east Poland and moved to USA at age fourteen. First New York and them I made my way west, to California. After sixteen years, working as a carpenter, jeweler, jazz radio persona and sixty other different jobs I went back to Poland where I became a seaman on a cargo ship. That became load of a job at some point so I tried to settle up for a while in Iceland. I spend half a year working both as a fisherman and a lifeguard in Icelandic village in the north and another half in Poland.

Website: http://suddenweatherchange.com/info/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/przemyslaw.mioduszewski/

Unutursan Darılmam

Unutursan Darılmam

BY Ci Demi

Unutursan Darılmam (No Offence If You Forget, 2018 - 2023) is a photobook project about clinging to Istanbul and rediscovering life after a three-year-long depression.

Artist statement

Bio

I was born in Beyoglu, Istanbul on July 6th,1986. I studied Italian Language And Literature at Istanbul University. Following that, I worked for advertising agencies as copywriter and creative director for many years. I was 28 when I discovered visual story-telling. I did music photography and photojournalism for a while, then I decided to devote my time solely on my own stories. 

My work is focused on Istanbul and its personal psychogeographies. Adopting documentary as secondary function, I tell stories using the scenes of my city. My distinct color palette is a derivation of the look of Italian giallos of '70s, and I take clues from the cinematography of classic horror films in my visual language. All of my photographs take place in the daytime.

Website: https://cidemi.art/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ci_demi/

Ermo

ERMO

BY BRUNO SILVA

Muito tempo antes de saber o que Ermo significava, já lá brincava com amigos meus. Na verdade, achei que o Ermo só existia ali: naquelas duas ou três ruas cercadas por árvores. Ermo era o nome de um lugar nos arredores do porto muito próximo de onde vivi a minha infância e adolescência. Chegou a ser uma floresta extensa e densa até ao início dos anos 70. Altura em que o urbanismo transformou essa floresta extensa em dezenas de pequenos bosques. Foi nessa espécie de arquipélago de bosques que passei grande parte da minha infância. De dia, a luz: a aventura e a descoberta. De noite, a escuridão, o medo: o som dos animais, o cheiro a fumo das queimadas e a certeza dos fantasmas. Num desses bosques havia uma casa onde vivia uma mulher que tinha um problema de visão - os olhos dela eram brancos, mas não era cega. Ela vivia sozinha e quando lhe perguntavam como conseguia fazer a sua rotina sem qualquer ajuda, ela sorria e respondia que havia uma mão no ombro que a guiava através das árvores. Mas isso não a assustava - o que a assustava eram as árvores. Entre o documento e a representação, Ermo pretende ser um mapeamento sensorial de um território distante na memória. Abordando e rodeando questões entre o lar e a casa, o subúrbio e a infância, a forma e o símbolo, tentando criar um universo onírico, ambíguo e acima de tudo interpretativo. Tornando este “Ermo” que me é tão particular, no mais universal possível.

Artist statement

Bio

Utiliza a fotografia como veículo narrativo em projectos na área da fotografia documental tendo especial interesse pelo território e a memória. Apenas em 2017 começou a apresentar trabalhos publicamente. Nesse mesmo ano, recebeu a Bolsa Emergente Fotografia Documental I.P.C.I que lhe permitiu frequentar o Master em Fotografia Artística no I.P.C.I. Em 2020 fez parte da programação do Photo Alicante e foi selecionado para o Festival Circulations, Paris. Em 2021 foi um dos vencedores do Urbanautica Institute Awards. Em 2022 integrou o ciclo de exposições da Bienal de Arte Contemporânea de Cerveira e recebeu uma Menção Honrosa na Bienal de Fotografia de Vila Franca de Xira.

É representado pela Galeria Adorna, na cidade do Porto.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/o_bruno_silva/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D
Website: https://cargocollective.com/brunoleitesilva

Unknown Exceptions

Unknown ExceptionS

BY Aleksei Kazantsev

Unknown exception is an unforeseen deviation in the program's operation, a system failure. For survival in the modern world, it is essential to have the assurance that it is orderly, explainable, and dependent on us. However, once we begin to doubt the familiar, to suspect the ordinary of being illusory, that suspicion never lets go. And then it turns out that reality persistently offers to play, and the everyday landscape holds phantom visions and unpredictable glitches. The process of creating the series "Unknown Exceptions" was akin to performing a ritual with an unforeseen outcome. The project began with repeated visits to the same place on the outskirts of the city, somewhere between a park and a forest. Completely deserted in the twilight, it felt like a dream ready to generate phantoms. To bring them out, I created artificial anomalies using my own body, simple materials, and light structures. Repeated, monotonous attempts to capture the same frame immersed me in a trance-like state. Gradually, I transformed into a shapeless figure wandering in almost complete darkness... These experiments allowed me to document the (im)possible, what the human eye cannot perceive, making technology a mediator between the real and the phantom, between the physiology of twilight vision and our fantasies.

Artist statement

Bio

Aleksei Kazantsev is a visual artist working in the medium of photography. Born in Belarus, lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. Aleksei studied photography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. His work intuitively and narratively stems from the visual heritage of archetypal images, as well as our collective unconscious memory, symbolism, hypnotic states, trance, liminal states of mind. The artist looks for a twist in reality. Using altered perspectives and distorted vision, he moves you to feel disorientation and to recognize the uncanny. Exhibited in various galleries across Europe: Belgium (L'Enfant Sauvage, Pulsar, LWM18, National 55, Archiraar Gallery, Liège Photobook Festival, L'image sans nom, PAK-Gistel, Psychiatric Center Sint-Amandus); UK (pic.london festival, The Minories Galleries); Poland (Arsenal Gallery, Fundacia Villa Sokrates, Gray Mandorla Studio).

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/akapicdotcom
Website: http://www.akapic.com

He grew up in the fog

He grew up in the fog

BY ANGELO BONETTI

Angelo Bonetti (1976, Turin, Italy) is a visual artist who works with photography, mainly a self-taught photographer who over the years has pursued and developed his own language. Bonetti creates works that generate different contents, associations and meanings that come into conflict. Space becomes time and language becomes image. His works have a strong vision in the approach to life and its everyday life, a continuous interest in what surrounds him, deepening themes such as memory, time and the connections of his personal stories, questioning the conditions of appearance of images, representations and ideas in the context of the contemporary visual culture in which they normally work.

https://www.angelo-bonetti.com/

https://www.instagram.com/_angelobonetti/

Safe Socializing in Time of Quarantine by Brut Carniollus

Safe Socializing in Time of Quarantine

BY BRUT CARNIOLLUS

PT | EN

The world has stopped. Giving us an incredible opportunity to do the same and rethink the way we envision our society. An opportunity we never had or could even imagine. The world has stopped to give us time to think. Are we going to? Most probably not, but now we know the world can stop and we can too. We may refuse to accept the unthinkable, but while the world has stopped we also realized the pink elephant exists. And when all starts again we'll know what we never before thought possible. The world can stop. And we can slow down too.

Bio

Brut Carniollus is a visual artist and photographer specialized in photography based digital collage and digital graphics executed as original digital UV prints. His work is exhibited and awarded worldwide. Since 2012 he also serves as official paparazzi of renowned international artist symposium Slovenia Open To Art. He is a member of The Slovenian Association of Fine Arts Societies and represented by Gallery 5'14, 10dence Gallery and Singulart. Lives and works in Radovljica, Slovenia, EU.

https://carniollus.com

Embroidery Photography - Organicism por Marta Dias

Embroidery Photography - Organicism por Marta Dias

Organicismo é um nome e pode ser:
1. a doutrina em que tudo na natureza tem uma base orgânica ou faz parte de um todo orgânico.
2. o uso ou defesa de formas literárias ou artísticas nas quais as partes estão conectadas ou coordenadas no todo.
No entanto, o Organicismo na fotografia com técnica de bordado são conexões sobre essa organicidade entre fotografia e a técnica do bordado.

Bio
Marta Dias nasceu a 27 de setembro de 1988, em Lisboa. Oriunda de uma família albicastrense, cedo demonstrou interesse pelas artes visuais, motivada pelos diversos tios e primos com apetência para as artes plásticas.

Concluiu o curso de Arquitetura em Lisboa com a tese final de curso, Paisagem Urbana e Ribeirinha – Estudo da Praça do Comércio através do olhar fotográfico onde frequentou diversos cursos no Instituto Português de Fotografia; apresentada em 2014, foi classificada por muitos como “atrevida”, mas conseguindo aliar os seus conhecimentos de arquitetura ao gosto pela fotografia.

Fez estágio de arquitectura em Utrecht, Holanda e participou em várias exposições incluindo exposições a solo sobre a viagem humanitária que fez em 2015.

Nos últimos dois anos encontra-se em Copenhaga, Dinamarca à procura de novas oportunidades e descobertas.

Stay at home - Portuguese in Copenhagen by Marta Dias

STAY AT HOME - PORTUGUESE
IN COPENHAGEN

BY MARTA DIAS

PT | EN

Since March 13th, the Danish government has introduced lockdown measures.

"Stay at home - Portuguese in Copenhagen" is a small view of the Portuguese community in Copenhagen where life outside the home has ceased.

They are Portuguese who live alone or with their family.

They are Portuguese who came (for now) only to study or who have lived for many years and established their roots here.

The brief minutes for the "portrait at the door" tries to contrast with the long weeks of a uncertain time with the "saudade" and the Portuguese's smiles that will always be present.

Bio

Marta Dias was born on September 27, 1988, in Lisbon. Coming from an “albicastrense” family, she soon showed interest in the visual arts, motivated by several uncles and cousins with competence for plastic arts.

She completed the Architecture master degree in Lisbon with the final thesis of the course, Urban and Riverside Landscape - Study of Praça do Comércio through the photographic view where she attended several courses at the Instituto Português de Fotografia; presented in 2014, it was classified by many as “bold”, but managing to combine its knowledge of architecture with the taste for photography.

She did an architecture internship in Utrecht, The Netherlands and participated in several exhibitions including solo exhibitions on his humanitarian trip in 2015.

For the past two years, she has been in Copenhagen, Denmark looking for new opportunities and discoveries.

Souvenirs from Home by Miguel Santos

SOUVENIRS FROM HOME

BY MIGUEL SANTOS

PT | EN

February 2020.

I moved to Italy to attend an internship at a design studio. 4 weeks in, the country goes into lockdown.

Exploring trips I had planned on taking around the country now come down to the odd trip to the kitchen, bathroom, and on unexpectedly rare and magical occasions—to venture out to the supermarket. Sightseeing has been redirected to a very specific enclosed area, unveiling new ways to perceive it. Trivialities of the outside world are on standby; new ones are found indoors, as a possible escape from the cataclysm looming over us.

I find myself taking notice of subtle changes in uneventful spaces. Light falls on everyday objects and its surroundings, unveiling parallels between the public and private domains. Domestic scenes look almost carefully orchestrated, where object becomes subject (to the changes in light). Outside, the neighbouring axis is repurposed—buildings’ shadows, with moving sharp angles, are now indicators of the time of the day (a bit like the sundials in the façades of the piazzi I visited before shit hit the fan).

I become more in sync with the physical changes around me. In the absence of outside stimuli, I learn to find them in the immediate space around me. Time leaves its mark on the mundane and ephemeral—food rots, water dries. A form of time regulation denoting a journey through the everyday. The human factor is replaced with the inanimate, yet these images tell a story of warmth, and make quarantine a nice and desirable destination.

These images are souvenirs of a trip I did not intend on taking, in which destination became the same as the point of departure.

Bio
Miguel Santos holds a degree in Communication Design from Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto. (2019) Participated in an exchange student programme at Willem de Kooning Academie (Rotterdam). He has an FdA in Interior Design from the London College of Communication (2009- 2011). Has interned at the faculty’s museum. Collaborated on a freelance level with creative and marketing studio Grow Creativity (Porto), in the design and production department. At the moment, he is interning at Studio Blanco in Italy, where he is involved in both commercial and cultural projects.