Expedition to Reality

Text by Tiago Casanova

The universe of the photographic image never conveys a complete knowledge of a certain reality, but rather temporal and spatial fragments that we use to imagine the real moment. Therefore, for those who see the photographic image almost everything is imagination, and for those who produce it, it is a process of fragmentation. Because of this simple reason, an expedition to reality through photography would be a utopian process. Just as we talk about truth we are objectively talking about lies, when we talk about reality we talk about fiction. One concept does not exist without the other, and within the sphere of our knowledge it is fiction that often teaches us about what is real, namely in the universe of the image. Thus, my expedition to reality is an expedition to our imagination, a mental exercise that goes back to the origins and aims to figure out how humans search for logical and empirical answers through fictional narratives, so that they can justify their reality.

Based on the method used by the native people before the emergence of the concept of science, my aim is to imagine how myths and legends are created, fictional stories that attempt to explain reality. But, instead of trying to understand the natural and the autochthonous, this exercise tries to understand the contemporary, starting with fragments of a reality that, when combined, assist in the creation of a highly subjective and personal story. In fact, this is an exercise we go through every day, even if unconsciously. Notwithstanding, here the intention is to put this reality into perspective and to think about how we use the subconscious to understand what surrounds us.

I write subconscious because, in my opinion, it is the purest state of perception of reality, since it has the ability to absorb everything we try, think of, feel and live. This is something that we cannot do consciously, as we are limited insofar as what we can absorb and interpret, but also because we are somehow formatted to produce certain judgments and abide to a set of values due to preconceived ideas we adhere to throughout our life. Dreams are the natural gateway to our subconscious, a sea of truths and realities. Paradoxically, our dreams are both fictional and real. They are unreal within the parameters by which we know the world, but the purest of realities we can feel and think of.

In this way, the exercise is presented to the public in the form of fictional compositions produced by my own dreams. An exercise of individual exploration of a subconscious reality upon which the spectator can produce their own fiction, its meaning always open to personal interpretation.