CIELITO LINDO

When Images (Re)Touch Reality

Abstract

The landscape of the Anthropocene becomes fragile, like modern architecture. If the needs of the working masses prevailed in the former, in the Modern Landscape, it will be the consuming masses who, in addition to exploiting and exhausting it, will replace it with its image, its representation, thus nullifying its existence and patrimonializing—in its most literally economic aspect—its representation for perfect sale. Postcards clearly reflect this. The anachronism of sending a postcard today is not, however, the manipulation and retouching of its image. The postcard no longer travels loaded with emotion, but loaded with ammunition. Enough ammunition to bombard and destroy any destination susceptible—very sustainable—to being delivered to the consumer tourist. Throughout this world of cartophiles, in its boom, we see how the sky becomes the protagonist in a game of repetitions and assemblages. Sometimes, the same sky is multiplied over different landscapes; other times, the same landscape is reinvented under different skies. In this montage practice, postcards reveal their essence as visual devices that challenge our perception and invite us to reflect on the visual construction and stereotypes of the landscape. The curtain rises on the fantastic celestial spectacle.