Patricio Guzmán - Nostalgia for the Light
A map to think through different sites and ideas within the project Guzmán, Patricio. Nostalgia for the Light, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN-P5TvjX3o.
Exploring the Atacama desert and the search for the past both by looking up to the sky (at an astronomical time frame looking for answers about the history of the cosmos) and down to the soil (at a human time frame looking for the remains of those killed by the Pinochet regime)
Astronomers / archaeologists - both investigating the past in different time scales
“The question is: why are there archaeologists and astronomers in the same place? The answer is simple. Here the past is more accessible than elsewhere. The translucency of the sky is, for the archeologists of space, what the dry climate is for us. It facilitates our access to evidence from the past. The translucency enables the astronomers to shed light on the mysteries of space.”
(25:00)
“Compared to the immensity of the cosmos, the problems of the Chilean people might seem insignificant. But if we laid them out on a table, they would be as vast as a galaxy.”
(1:26:00)
Powerful movement between the personal / particular detail and connection to the land and the vast / astonomical questions of the universe that surrounds us
The movement does not divert attention or value between either perspective - but instead gives new meaning to each search into the past as seen within the time frame of the other and alongside another perspective on the value of life
Astronomers / archaeologists - both investigating the past in different time scales
“The question is: why are there archaeologists and astronomers in the same place? The answer is simple. Here the past is more accessible than elsewhere. The translucency of the sky is, for the archeologists of space, what the dry climate is for us. It facilitates our access to evidence from the past. The translucency enables the astronomers to shed light on the mysteries of space.”
(25:00)
“Compared to the immensity of the cosmos, the problems of the Chilean people might seem insignificant. But if we laid them out on a table, they would be as vast as a galaxy.”
(1:26:00)
Powerful movement between the personal / particular detail and connection to the land and the vast / astonomical questions of the universe that surrounds us
The movement does not divert attention or value between either perspective - but instead gives new meaning to each search into the past as seen within the time frame of the other and alongside another perspective on the value of life