1998 Colombia
Immersion, Immersio, Immersione, Inmersión.
Dreams of water, dreams of memory; the vehicle for the journey is the goal itself.
The primordial act is to see, not to show; insofar as Claudia Robles sees, she makes me see — see what? Nothing… or everything: the oldest memory born from oblivion.
The image that is seen and recorded is not transcribed servilely; it questions its own existence, it exists on its own, it distorts itself, lengthens and shortens, hides within a liquid vision… a reflection? Perhaps, for the reflection in water cannot be grasped: at the touch of the surface with one’s fingers, Narcissus loses himself.
Immersion is a journey — in search of the bottom? the surface? — that demands an initiation, that accepts laws, follows them, and then discards them. The game of the labyrinth, whether to reach the exit or the center, the air or the earth. The images, which allow themselves to be seen and heard, invite one to touch yet refuse to be touched. What I see and hear wants me to wander through it, to seek it, to submerge myself, hold my breath, and swim through its medium. Now it is I who am refracted: I bend and stretch; the object I see is myself in my attempt to see.
Now the screens see me and think of me.
Ricardo Toledo
Colombian Art Critic and Historian.
Audio>> GEMA