What is left
Gonçalo C. Silva
The human experience of a place is inseparable from our prior knowledge of it, and from the relationships we seek to establish to the place in question. The Romans used the Latin term ‘Genius Loci’ – the spirit of the place – to define the indefinable; the genius of a place inhabited by man. It’s a series of mystical and often ephemeral characteristics that makes us feel we belong to a certain place. My photographic project seeks to explore this idea of belonging, considering the possibility of feeling at home in places we would least expect to. More than finding answers, it’s interesting to raise some questions: What is the meaning of home? Can nature give us the feeling of home? Can we feel at home in a place we've never been before?
Gonçalo C. Silva (b. 1997) lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal. He has studied at both the Faculty of Fine-Arts in Lisbon and at Atelier de Lisboa, and is currently pursuing an MA at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities from NOVA University of Lisbon. In his work, which applies an artistic approach to photography, Silva addresses themes related to the representation of the landscape, and to the relationship between humans and nature. In his projects, the interconnection of images from different contexts creates new meanings and narratives with a strong symbolic character, related to the artist’s personal experiences.