Gian Marco Sanna
Paradise - SIGNED COPY!
Artphilein Editions, Lugano — 2023
Earth is Heaven and Hell is not noticing it
- Jorge Luis Borges
“Earth is paradise. Hell is not noticing it.” Sanna has often cited this aphorism by Borges in various interviews as the seed from which Paradise began to germinate within him. Hence, the choice of the red filter by which the eye is overwhelmed when viewing the shots: i.e., to make a sign of the exhaustion and weariness of a planet where, from many quarters, it is said that ‘life’ cannot go on like this for long. Covering the image with a filter – to be provocative – is not, however, a gesture so unlike the one that has brought the ecosystem to the brink of the abyss (assuming, of course, that we are still on this side and not already beyond it). However, by re-proposing such a gesture, Paradise lays its logic bare. In other words, it highlights the fact that the planet, over the time it has been inhabited by homo sapiens sapiens, has seen the filter of technical-linguistic paraphernalia placed between itself and the latter, which has led it ultimately to become a source from which to draw resources for purposes of endless accumulation.
