The photographer Adriana Lestido presents a movie and two books on her trip to the Arctic

An exterior and interior trip

This was not the artist’s first expedition to the frozen confines of the Earth. In 2012, he traveled to Antarctica in search of absolute targets, But it ended in the Aptly called Island Disappointment: a volcanic territory, deeply black. Following that trip, he published two other books (he has a total of eight): one that brings together 50 photographs, “Black Antarctica” (edited by intellectual capital), and another entitled “Black Antarctica. The newspapers” (edited by Juan Forn in Tusquets).

“I wanted to do something in cinema for a while. After Antarctica I felt that I needed to move on to something else and bought a video camera to familiarize myself with the environment and learn. And on the other hand I wanted to see the auroras and register their movement and. Its magical light. Thus, in January 2019 I went to Tromso (Norway) where hopefully they are seen. They had invited Berlin with the Sample of Antarctica and took a passage to Tromso on my own. But beyond having been able to see and record, it was very strong what I felt physically for being so close to the Earth’s magnetic pole ”, told the capital about the deed of his new trip to the poles.

“I spent a month, all January (full winter) and on that trip I decided that I would return at all stations to spend long seasons. But at that time I was not so clear about what I wanted to do. I only knew that I wanted to be in those places, register the time spending the image, and the sound of the image. But above all what interested me was the experience of traveling around the Arctic Circle. Being alone in extreme and unknown places, ”added the photographer. Finally, she made five trips between January 2019 and May of the 2020 to Norway, Svalbard and Iceland Islands,” without technical assistance of any kind or company or production. “

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The “wandering” movie is properly presented as A “visual meditation”: an invitation to inhabit another stadium. The trip is to another of oneself. “Lesto transforms the camera into a tool for inquiry not only of space but also of its own lonely personal experience. It is the conquest of the home in the sense of being able to reach the place that belongs to us,” says the synopsis.

To the visual and sound record that makes “that indomitable nature and its transformation” in the film, the author adds texts by Haruki Murakami, Luis Alberto Spinetta, Liliana Bodoc, Frigyes Karinthy, Theodor Kallifatides, Antonio Gamoneda and Doris Dörrie, and of songs by Nick Cave, Gabo Ferro and Ketil Bjor. Languages ​​always live together and accompany, dialogue with each other inside and outside the same support.

Look outside to look inside

If the film presented a window to the trip experience, the newspapers allow you to see on the other side of the camera and focus on the traveler. “The two books, especially the newspapers, I think they complement it. Many people see the movie, read the newspapers and see the movie again (which really has many repeat offenders, that’s beautiful). The newspapers are somehow a recapitulation of my life. The self -travels were. From what was activated from the experiences and everything I had to go through. ‘Look outside to look inside’, as my beloved Robert Frank said. And on the other hand, that is what interests me most to generate with both things, the interior trip of the spectator or reader, ”Adriana explained about the link between the parts of his work.

Without a doubt, when looking at the movie or watching the photographs, It is impossible not to ask curious and even concern about the adventures and misadventures of that artist in the middle of nowhere, Where a lot happens. And not only the anecdotes are interested, but also the subjective echoes of that loneliness.

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“It was a long job that I faced immediately after the movie ended. I began to digitize travel newspapers, several notebooks (I always write a lot, especially on trips), I printed them and began to edit them with Guillermo Saccomanno, beloved friend and teacher. We worked in parts, cleaning, suppressing, opening the parts that were not clear. ‘It doesn’t go, it doesn’t,’ Guille wrote from time to time. Or ‘great!’ After his indications I rewritten everything, to print, he to review. We got together and discussed their corrections, which was necessary to suppress or write better. I rewrite again, I added things, we saw him together again, ”Lestido shared on the newspaper’s assembly process.

Saccomano himself affirms in the prologue: “Tarkovski has often referred to sacrifice as a necessary transit for creation, direct allusion to the sacred value of art as an experience that transcends the introspective. Well, well, Adriana goes on that side. And, where appropriate, the sacrifice becomes revelation. ‘Check that the only thing that counts is to be in what it is’, She says. “Being in what it is. That is the revolutionary proposal, a setback, of the work of the leastate.

“We were working for a year. It was beautiful, we fought and had a lot of fun. At the end of everything I continued alone giving the last touches. I feel very grateful to have worked with him, a real learning. Something similar with Juan Forn also happened when the Antarctica newspapers were published, although in that case the work was more limited because that book is much smaller. It was great too, they have very different ways to edit. My dear friends. Gifts that life gave me, ”Adriana added.

When he was consulted for what surprised her from the entire process of “the conquest of the home”, Lestido replied: “Infinite learning.”

“It is not a surprise in reality, it was rather confirming something that I know is like that. And in addition to that something happens to me that really happens to me with the finished works: I saw the movie countless times and read the book as many, and with both things it happens to me that when I enter (sometimes to look at something specific), I finish at the beginning and continue until the end and I get excited as if it were not me who did them, the one who lived those situations, on trips and in life. It is as if they had their own life, And they move me with what your life causes me. A little crazy, but well, ”Adriana closed.