This is an unpublished project premiered today on C41 Magazine.
Ariadna Silva Fernández was born in A Estrada (Galicia, Spain), in 1996. Master Degree in Art and Documentary Photography at TAI School (Madrid) and Degree in Audiovisual Communication from UOC (Open University of Catalunya). She has been selected in the Canon Student Program 2017 of Visa pour l’image (Perpignan, FR) Encontros de Artistas Novos 2018 (Galicia, SP) and in the Pa-ta-ta Photography Festival 2019 (Granada, SP). In 2018 she published her first photobook “Fillos do vento” (Banco Editorial), a personal story about the tradition ‘Rapa das Bestas’ in Sabucedo. She has received the Xuventude Crea Award from Xunta of Galicia, was recipient of the Albarracín Grant (Teruel, SP) with her work “Cartografía do esquecemento” (Cartography of oblivion) and shortilsted at Loading Fest (Porto, PT).
In her personal work, she divides between photography and video art. In both disciplines, she uses documentary rhetorics that are interpreted as needs for deepening her relationship with the natural landscape to build a view of it. She is also interested in transit, change, and doubt: she prefers the unknown rather than evidence.
About ‘Cartography of Oblivion’ – words by Ariadna Silva Fernández:
“Cartography of oblivion” (Cartografía do esquecemento) proposes a reflection on the cultural consequences of the native Galician forest loss. The destruction of the Atlantic forest is motivated by different political, social, economic and environmental factors causing a devastating impact both for biodiversity, memory and collective identity of a large part of Galicia.
The body of work is presented as both accomplices and victims of a cyclical process in the form of an atlas or cartography. The native forests, in addition to serving as a natural barrier against fire, are characterized as being a symbolic element of Galician culture: the Celts considered oaks and chestnut trees were sacred and a means of communication with the afterlife. The exponential planting, reproduction and normalization of eucalyptus, an invasive species native to Australia used to make cellulose and biomass, causes desecration of the sacred forest, not only because of its presence, but because, in case of fire, it benefits from fire itself by being a pyrophyte species.
“Cartography of oblivion” arises from a personal concern about a situation strongly aggravated by global warming and the lack of an efficient forest policy. This project is a self-reflexive exercise, an introspection and healing process, and also a personal conflict because it investigates the autobiography linked to the family heritage in relation to the raised issue. It is about demonstrating that the sacred and monumental will survive over time, but not the human condition.
