http://transeuropephoto.eu/artist/?artist=323
—“Buscas la dulce vuelta, y un dios te la hará difícil”
Canto XI La Odisea de Homero
La post Odisea de Elena sin hache.
La palabra Nostos proviene del griego y significa “vuelta a la patria, regreso”. La fuerza evocadora de la Odisea, la poesía de inmigrantes del siglo VIII a.c inspiró el regreso a casa de un griego que ya no existe. Elena quiso cumplir el deseo truncado de su marido, el cual, a sus 12 años y producto de una hambruna atroz, se subió a un barco con su familia dejando atrás su patria helénica. Como prueba, su primer fotografía realizada para el pasaporte: La única que tendrán de Grecia.
La “Itaca” de Nicolás es un pueblo de montaña al cual un terremoto decidió quitarlo del mapa en los años ´70. Sin embargo, nada nuevo se ha construido encima. Sus escombros parecen seguir esperando.
Si migrar es un derecho, regresar también lo es. Pero, ¿Cuán factible es regresar a alguien que dejó la vida hace 20 años?
La historia de la fotografía no es diferente a la historia de Nicolás. Ambos han sufrido un proceso de desmaterialización. En la era de la post fotografía y el post cuerpo se han aprovechado las oportunidades que ofrece la naturaleza inmaterial de las nuevas tecnologías para inventar un camino de regreso. Tomando como punto de partida fotografías analógicas digitalizadas, se ha generado in situ el único nostos posible: Volver, aunque sea en fotos.
Elena sin hache es entonces la post odisea: Un regreso conceptual. Sin héroes, ni sirenas. Sin dioses, ni tragedias que culminan en poemas.
Sin haches para Elena.
“You seek a honey-sweet homeward journey, but a god will make it difficult”
Homer's Odyssey - Book XI
The word Nostos comes from the Greek language and means "return to the homeland, come back". The evocative force of the Odyssey, the immigrant´s poetry of the 8th century B.C., has inspired the present work, and so did the return home of a Greek man who no longer lives. Elena wanted to fulfill the frustrated urge to coming back of her husband, who, at the age of 12, and product of an atrocious famine, boarded a ship with his family, leaving behind his Hellenic homeland. As an evidence, here is his first photography taken for his passport. The only picture held by the Greeks authoritys, indeed.
The "Itaca" of Nicolas is a mountain town to which an earthquake decided to remove from the map in the late 70´s. Anyway, nothing has been built up in there ever since. Their debris seems to be still awaiting.
Migration is a right, and so is to return. But, how can you possibly bring someone back to his homeland after he passed away 20 years ago?
The history of photography is no so different from Nicola´s history. Both release an undergone process of dematerialization. In the era of post photography and post body there have been taken advantage of the opportunities offered by the immaterial nature of new technologies to invent a way back. By taking as a starting point digitized analog photographies, the only possible Nostos has been created in situ: To return, even it was only through pictures.
"Elena with no h" is about the following post-odyssey: A conceptual return. without heroes, without mermaids. without Gods, no tragedies in between, all ending as poetry. And no h's for Elena.
