Author: Renato Leotta
Photogram on silver gelatin paper.
The installation comprises ten photograms capturing the image of sea urchins suspended in water. These sea creatures were directly immortalized on photographic paper, submerged briefly in seawater, and exposed to moonlight, effectively turning the natural landscape into a vast darkroom. The negative impressions of the sea urchins' shadows on the paper transform them into luminous bodies within the photograph.
Leotta reconstructs the landscape using elements native to the environment itself, making it both the subject and the medium of the installation. The seascape adorned with sea urchins is transferred onto the wall, enveloping the viewer in a silent, abyssal underwater dimension reminiscent of the cosmic vastness. In the artist's own words: “Ten sea urchings draw a map of the sky. The are stars, comets, planets, suns, people. Fallen into the sea during the night. They are females and males; they are purple, red, brown, yellow” (Galería Madragoa).