The Lovers of the Arctic Circle #01

Rubén photographs fiction in which the spectator can see themselves reflected. Rubén’s characters are out of place, out of position, belong to the city but they are in a field, dressed for a special occasion they hope for, in the middle of a dark earth. Night falls. The landscape becomes the scene. A black woman on her knees scoops earth between her fingers. Is she hopeless or adoring? Mourning the barren Earth or suited to the night that celebrates an encounter with mother earth? The sky becomes cloudy and a storm looms. Rain is predicted.

The one that needs the Earth to be fertile also needs seeds and hope. Patiently waiting. The automatic reflex, a glance towards the ground, the feet, the roots; towards the horizon, the future, the dreams. The characters are the nexus that connect the sky and the Earth, metaphysical scarecrows, lightning rods of meat and bone paralyzed, awaiting an unloading waiting to disintegrate or for elevation. In optimistic search of a better future or passive fatalism of an amazing and devoid sense of existence? Rubén´s characters are searching, they are searching and hoping.

Beatriz Martínez