Canção á poeira
Canção à poeira in the ECO OCÊ exhibition, at Quase Espaço. Photography Estúdio em obra.
Canção à poeira (Song to the dust), a project conceived by Luana Lorena, investigates the time of memories through photography. Based on the meticulous digitalization of analog photographic materials from 11 families, the proposal is to reflect on possible translations for the stories and silences that these photographs tell. The work develops itself through prose shared with the interlocutors of these collections: it is from this dialogue that the compass for the translation of analog photographs into digital files is born.
Lorena proposes possibilities for preserving these photographs, which often live in shoe boxes forgotten on some shelf, suggesting a conversation about the aging of memory. In the emotional fabric that is expressed — or silenced — in the so-called “intimate memories,” something broader is enunciated: memory is a field of dispute, and that which is dusty can also hold new songs.
As the result of three years of research, this book is the conjugation and composition of the memories that permeate Canção , proposing a new syntax for them.
Canção à poeira is available for consultation at the Photography Library of the Moreira Salles Institute (IMS), in São Paulo.
2024 | ECO OCÊ exhibition, at Quase Espaço, with the book Canção à poeira
2024 | Lovely House Award Finalist
2024 | Selected for the Publication Round, of the Imaginária Festival (São Paulo) with the Center of Photographic Studies (Centro de Estudios Fotograficos, Córdoba)
2024 | Selected for the Photobook Exhibition of the Festival de Fotografia Mulheres Luz (Mulheres Luz Photography Festival)
2024 | Selected in the 2024 Call for Photobooks of the ZUM Festival, organized by the ZUM Magazine from the Moreira Salles Institute
2024 | Selected in the Open Call for Models of the Festival Solar (Solar Foto Festival)
2025 | ZUM/IMS Photobook Exhibition at the Tiradentes Photography Festival
By translating these moments, the artist leads us along the fine line that separates the public from the intimate in family photographs. When we come across a faceless lap, hands picking flowers, or a child in the corner of a room, we find ourselves before a fragment of the world we can only partially grasp — a sliver of memory that families have chosen to share with others. This exhibition stands in contrast to the silence of what those same people preferred to keep to themselves — or even to erase. Luana pays attention to both the visible and the invisible. Her photobook is also a work of listening.
Rafaela Kawasaki, about Canção à poeira
In Se eu interpretar uma fotografia, for ZUM Magazine
Canção à poeira, a book by Luana Lorena.
Video by Mayra Azzi, accompanied by Ao Que Vai Nascer, composed by Milton Nascimento and Fernando Brant, in the voice of Milton.