Andalusian impressions

The Andalusian sun in the summer season presses down upon the earth, slows and burdens every movement, dazzles and forces the eyes shut in anticipation of the night, so much so that at various moments it reminded me of Camus’s words on Algiers in The Stranger:

“For two hours now the day had not moved forward, two hours during which it had dropped anchor in an ocean of molten metal.”

This very violent quality of light and heat is the central theme of Suggestioni andaluse in controtempo (Andalusian Impressions Off-Beat), in which the excess of the day’s attributes is shown through night, and the oppressive heat through the need for cold. The deep shadows of buildings and churches, the thick walls concealing bodies in search of a saving, cool half-light, the windows like giant wounds drawing everything into an unreal whiteness, and the pools of earth bleached or scorched by an eternal noon, are evidence of the invincible quality of a land whose grace and torment lie in its excess of light, and of a continuous counterbeat of forces that conceal precisely where they most display themselves, and vice versa.

Visit the gallery Suggestioni andaluse in controtempo

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