About the instinct of “survival”-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                            

  © Emilio García Dominguez

We shall be the privileged witnesses of five ways of representing the temporariness of life in this world, with its undercurrent of travel to who knows where: its routes, stops, lapses, mutations and alternatives. Five journeys in search of an identity that struggles with and resists ending, and becomes a means to reveal it to us; Photography that, like the “rose” by Pepa de Rivera in this editorial, will always be an ‘additional’ way of life.

 

 

Tino Soriano “CurArte”

The dispute between life and death is settled anywhere and at all times; everywhere. There are places that are envisioned for life to overcome and continue. It is like playing on a field of one´s own although this doesn´t always prevent the worst from coming. The dark shadow of drama and tragedy pursues real life, just like light projects our shadows, those we cannot get rid of. There are accounts of the unfortunate who lost or sold their shadow to the devil, like others did their souls, and ultimately their lives: there is no way out but there is a cure that gives us time, yet another extension of time.

The human ‘art’ of healing is at the core of this flow of images that move through the gaps of hospitals, health areas and centers, sanatoriums, outpatient facilities; hallways, operating rooms, waiting rooms, surgeries, hospital rooms, centers, care units, rehabilitation rooms, birthing rooms, infirmaries and medicine cabinets… Spaces suitable for healing and recovery, for salvation and betterment…for the safeguarding and preservation of human life. Everything that happens in these scenarios become decisive events. Nobody attends to them for fun: we are forced to or are brought there with no choice. Paradoxically, those who await us there do want to be there; to help us, because this is what they do: saving lives!

With this in mind, it is not hard to imagine that the result of someone intending to photographically register what goes on in there, up to its final consequences, is perfectly defined by the title “ArtCure”, as the art of healing – the knowledge, science and dedication it involves – is depicted by these images from all possible angles of a daily experience sustained by vocation. Each image is, literally, a life, and the life of many around it. Here, each moment is literally decisive. Each human being, literally unique and unrepeatable. This is all well known by the professionals in charge of our health, and this humanist photographer who has been dedicated for over four decades to the noble art of compiling “scenes of healing” with all its actors moving behind the scenes.