Carlos Casas
Caves, Stones and Lights.
Capo di Leuca Fieldworks
30 July – 21 August 2016, Mon – Sun 19h – 22h
Exhibition curated and produced by Ramdom.
Lastation, Piazza Bitonti, Piazza San Rocco, Gagliano del Capo (LE), Italy
Investigation on the Extreme Land 2015-16
The exploration of a territory is not only a surface process, but implies a deep, careful investigation, in the bowels of the earth and its inhabitants.
Capo di Leuca, the last extremity on the southern part of Italy, is a complex entity in which natural and human landscape merge into each other, they are mutually contaminated. No scientific study has unearthed their connection, but there sure is a strict relationship between the quarry, the caves, the stones of this land, and the ways in which they have moulded the nature of its inhabitants.
In his research work, promoted by Ramdom as part of “Extreme Land Investigation” project Spanish visual artist and filmmaker Carlos Casas has been fascinated by the thousand-years old story of these stones, as well as by the people who – together with the sea – have shaped them: the stonebreakers. The artist explored the hidden caves of this land, where, hammering and chiseling, many houses and public buildings have been built over the centuries; he followed the light, which in the Finis Terrae rises and sets from the horizon counterpointing the switching rhythm of Santa Maria di Leuca’s lighthouse.
The natural light is one of the elements that gives magic to many of the caves placed between clefts along eastern coast of Salento. One in particular, Vucca de lu puzzu (Well’s mouth), appeared to the artist in its magnificence and majesty. While exploring it, Casas fell down and suffered a cranial trauma, comprehending first-hand his works try create an intimate bond between those caves, stones, lights and the most remote places of the human soul.
Casas’ exhibition features the works realized in this territory, and investigates the Cape of Leuca in its most intimate nature, offering a personal interpretation and, at the same time, posing new questions. In the end, we are born chained convicts in the depths of a cave.
Collateral events:
. July, 31th: Caves, stones and lights. The Capo di Leuca landscape explained to the Capo di Leuca. Talk with Carlos Casas (artists), Paolo Mele (Ramdom’s director), Domenico Licchelli (astrophysics). Short audio and video performances by the artist.
. July, 31th – August 1th: Exploration. Exhibition places live visited. One day at the discovery of the territory re-mapped in an artistic way. Morning: visit to the cavern. Afternoon: visit to the cave and sunset at the lighthouse. Reservation obligatory.
. August, 3rd, h 21.00: Carte Blanche: artist’s video screening, from the experiences that influenced him in the Extreme Land.
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