"He [the artist] does not juxtapose copies of the figure; each time, he combines one element of a copy with another element of the next copy. In the dynamic process of construction, he introduces an imbalance, an instability, an asymmetry, a kind of opening, all of which will only be resolved in the total effect."
— Gilles Deleuze

The power to navigate vision

Contemplating the world and seeking to exist in it, in our own way, is a task we are all subjected to daily. Life, as it is, exists differently for each of us, and we grant it forms that remap impressions, objects, relationships—shaped and reshaped as they intersect with events. What remains is the curiosity about what each of us does—and how we act—when faced with the inevitability of inhabiting a world that is multiple, excessive, and increasingly activated by the online state in technicolor.

Having the opportunity to witness an extensive inventive and experimental process, as presented in this exhibition by André Santangelo, is to observe what unfolds across various moments in the practice of an artist striving to unveil the photographic universe, deepening his relationship with this field since 1980. For this exhibition, the artist and curator selected photographs that originally belonged to series created over several years of practice, reorganizing them to generate new layers of meaning capable of highlighting unique cores within pre-existing sets.

The setbacks, instability, and flaws evoked by the idea of shipwreck—expressed in the title—underscore the artist's way of thinking and crafting images. In Santangelo’s modes of seeing and creating, there are elements that are omnipresent and permeate the works on display, such as time, simultaneity, repetition, and difference. These are combined with chromatic fields, optical illusions, dynamic movements, and conceptual arrangements that, through an extremely sensitive gaze, relate objects, animals, creatures, and people. They are embedded in landscapes that seem to emerge and submerge continuously, as if reluctant to fully reveal themselves, drawing attention to what was or what is yet to come.

Three main cores have been conceptualized: A. Detour to Blue, which highlights the cerulean constants of sky and sea, deeply present across the artist's overall production; B. The Cyans, the result of recent experiments with cyanotype, a photographic printing technique; C. We Are, which brings us into contact with the artist's vision of humanity through his travel experiences in India in 2005–2006.

Additionally, there is a circularly constructed timeline characterizing a flow of production that accommodates shifts in points of observation and modes of thought, embedded in the back-and-forth nature of temporality—a hallmark of Santangelo's artistic process.

To shipwreck the image might just be a way of seeing the world.