DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND
MEDIUM FORMAT FILM, SPAIN BORDER
GOOGLE EARTH
ALLA RICERCA DELLE COLONNE D'ERCOLE
<< … venimmo a quella foce stretta dov' Ercule segnò li suoi riguardi…>>
The thirst for knowledge, the search for new worlds to discover, of what is unknown and full of dangers, pushed the man to go beyond also "the Pillars of Hercules," the insurmountable limit of the land known, considered by the ancients the end of inhabited world. Alla Ricerca delle Colonne d’Ercole, it is a long-term artistic research project started in October 2016. This is a first chapter of the research of the extreme limit, of the hunger for knowledge that is behind the creation of the first maps, and we're going to explore guided by myths, legends, to discover the area. A research on the western boundary, that represented for the ancients an insurmountable limit of the known world: the literature, the mythology, the history will be the starting points for a real exploration of the places. The Pillars of Hercules become more than a defined place and a geographical boundary, a western border between known and unknown that represents the fictional map of the Mediterranean and at the same time a psychological and ethics map, where everything is much less defined and stable.
These places become open spaces, undefined, and will unveil new landscapes on the Mediterranean: this sea which is unifying principle and the separator, the symbol of the becoming for its float unstoppable, like the movement of time that has become history.
We have worked on several levels reconstructing all the fragments of our journey. We have built a travel story that includes photographs, maps, charts, drawings, texts, videos and a notebook / diary in which we recounted, in detail, the preparatory research work to the storytelling and the exploration diary
The Iberians and the Libyans claimed that the columns were two rocks that closed the passage of the ships, or those today Gedeira / Cadiz, and then Dicearco, Eratosthenes and most Greeks localized columns in the Strait of Gibraltar.
Every people has given its version on the boundaries than what was conceived in antiquity as the inhabited earth and the end of this: with regard to shipments, nobody can supporting the groundlessness or probability. Indeed the man has always needed to establish boundaries. It is also likely that the time consumes the signals placed at boundary and the names and designations: and finally the geographic representations.
This research is a first chapter of the extreme limit, of the hunger for knowledge that is behind the creation of the first maps, and we're going to explore guided by myths, legends, to discover the area. We believe the border places as something that can be constantly rewritten and reinvented for porosity that characterizes them: the concept of boundary has always been one of the tools that the man uses to master the reality, show of force and power.
Curators: Maps Magazine
Festival, Exhibition: Emersioni Giovane Collettiva Fotografia, Livorno, Italy, Festival a-More, Croazia
Tools: Medium Format Film Photography, Digital Photography, Video, Cartography, Draw, Collaborative Practices, Google Earth, Mapbox Software.
2016
Year
Original Documents and Images from Archive of Tarifa Library
Narrative Cartography
Original Draw, Pencil on Paper
This map is the result of our work methodology, which we call “Narrative Cartography”. It is a drawing that represents an oral narration.
These maps were drawn by the people we met on our trip. Their stories helped us to know and understand this territory.
Original Draws,
A3+ Paper, Pencil on Paper.
01. Maps of Gibraltar
02. Draw of the two Pillars, Mountains.