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Helena Barbagelata 'La llave del abismo - The key to the abysm' / Spain

LA LLAVE DEL ABISMO / THE KEY TO THE ABYSM is a visual poem that examines the concept of abyssal depths and explores the beauty of life’s innermost realms through the experience of isolation.
The geographical circumscription and insularity of Greek Lazarets, built on narrow land and entirely surrounded by water, open up an unknown mosaic where the sea’s abyssopelagic zones join the limitlessness of space. In THE KEY TO THE ABYSM, the concrete history of these places worms an open narrative told through art and soundscape as the ambiance of the Lazarets is recreated from within, exploring the human condition through multiple angles of interpretation.
We all live beneath a single, shared human experience — what do the travelers, the physically and mentally ill, the refugees, the criminals, the political prisoners and us all have in common?
Our greatest battles are always fought alone as we uncover our physical and emotional weaknesses and strengths, in that stone building complex, that is the cell of our body – a completely empty space, or the state of being completely empty, that different people and different circumstances have filled in uniquely different ways.
Isolation is a void that prompts us into contemplating upon our own bottomless space, that abysm, that is found at the heart of our existence. What will we make of it?
Is it home to the mythological abode of beasts, or the primeval sea that describes the beginning of the world?
What do we contain inside those walls? A sanctuary or an execution-place? A madhouse or a retreat? Does it bring us chaos or the emotional reprieve from a world that overwhelms us with its intensity? The visual poem unfolds endless layers, imagery potentials and evocative possibilities, as the viewer is invited on a journey to find that star that is the key to his or her own abysm.

Art works: «Abyssales» series of acrylics on canvas (122x144cm), Helena Barbagelata, 2019-2020
Videography: Helena Barbagelata, 2021
Soundtrack: «Galim» Helena Barbagelata, 2021

THE KEY TO THE ABYSM | Project Lazaretta | Project Lazaretta

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