The Cemetery of the Living

Olenka Carrasco. The Cemetery of the Living. Wax-The lost children
Olenka Carrasco. The Cemetery of the Living. Photobook Secret
Page of my travel and exploration diary #12

 

Cairo, May 2011

…the heat is suffocating.
I wonder if the perspiration on my hands isn’t coming from the stress of being here.

Mansour repeats to us again: “Here we are! We have to walk with a firm step and with a lot of discretion: we cannot be seen, think that the kingdom of these beings is not of this world. If they show themselves, we must run! »

I wonder again and again if my little pinhole camera is capable of capturing my coming here forever…

– They’ve seen us! To the car!

I hug my camera with all my strength, then release it and take bursts of photographs… we run with brio.
We get in the car, everything starts moving, but I can’t get out of the window. The child comes up to us, fixes his eyes on me, and I on him; the background becomes a noise, the car moves, I stay in his eyes, he in mine.

Here is a simple story, the story of this child who, although he stayed there, in the Cemetery of the Living, never abandoned me…

Olenka Carrasco-The Cemetery of the Living-Being born
«Being born in the place where everyone gathers to die has made me lonely...»
Olenka Carrasco. The Cemetery of the Living. The door
Olenka Carrasco-The Cemetery of the Living-Address
«How do I know I'm alive when my address is: missing alleyway, mausoleum number, indoor basement?»

Olenka Carrasco. The Cemetery of the Living. Cairo
Description:

The cold, dark room, sandy soil, the constant sound of the blowing wind, and a voice…
In each page, a few images that are born from rotten trunks, wood from another time, from a negative that has been completely burned by the excess of light.

The Cemetery of the Living is a photographic and narrative reflection on life, on death and on this mysterious place occupied by the marginalized of the big cities.
Starting from a journey of exploration in the City of the Dead in Cairo, Egypt, the project wishes to tell the story of an inhabitant of this place that I have never been able to know.

The voice that resounds on the pages, belongs to a character who seems to have been forgotten, by all, by his family who barely speaks, by himself, he who does not even recognize the pores of his skin.

Inspired by Henry James’ book The Turn of the Screw, it is a metaphysical search around the being, its connection with the worlds of the dead, the spectres, the relationship with one’s own existence.
The discovery of a place that exists, although it is invisible to our eyes.

*

Technical aspects:

Photographic installation, sound and photobook.
Each piece is unique, handmade, printed, and treated with wax.
B&W silver photographic series, 24 images.

Olenka Carrasco. The Cemetery of the Living. Cairo Citadelle
Olenka Carrasco-The Cemetery of the Living-Scream
«But then, what are the screams?»
Olenka Carrasco. The Cemetery of the Living. The tree
Olenka Carrasco-The Cemetery of the Living-Window
«Could it be that warm sensation that runs through my body and turns into interminable aphonnic nausea?»
Olenka Carrasco. The Cemetery of the Living. The Night
Exhibitions:

-2019. La Casa de la Tapicera. Rencontres Photographiques d’Arles. France.

-2013. Lomography Gallery Madrid, Spain.

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