Isula Anima

"Isula Anima" evokes encounters with invisible entities during my explorations of the island of my ancestors, Corsica. On this island, whose geology defies man, I perceive a secret, clandestine world. Living and inanimate beings bear witness to a world

Isula Anima is my diploma project in photography at ECAL. It evokes encounters with invisible entities during my explorations of the island of my ancestors, Corsica. On this island, whose geology defies man’s footmark, I perceive a secret, clandestine world. Living and inanimate beings bear witness to a world invisible to the eye, but gradually appearing.

Driven by ancestral beliefs, the landscapes eventually take on anthropomorphic forms. A journey through a mischievous nature that reveals itself through its imperceptible aspects, such as a sign on the ground, a face emerging on a rock, dancing trees sculpted by the wind, or a figure in the sky, or a ladybird’s nest like a treasure perched atop a mountain. The objects take on a pos- thumous meaning and death becomes tangible in this universe.

In spring 2022, I spent eight weeks immersed in my family’s village. Discovering the house and the villagers raised questions about my origins and it was the starting point for my final-year project. I learned a lot about my family and my great-grandmother, who was the last inhabitant of the house. The memories and the stories took me by the hand and guided me through my Corsican past.

The themes addressed in this project are ruins, trace, death, and regeneration. I’m looking at how they can be used to explore history, memory, and nostalgia, as well as to evoke fragility, resilience, and transformation.

The ‘mazzeri’, traditional Corsican healers and shamans, know medicinal plants and communicate with the spirits to heal the living. They are known for their ability to predict death through prophetic dreams. I wanted to recreate an emotional and spiritual journey that echoes the forces of the spirit and the ancient tales that still inhabit Corsica today. Ancient stories still inhabit these lands.

Between the visible and the invisible, this intimate quest aims to reveal this hidden world a dimension where invisible entities manifest themselves and where death becomes sensitive, linking the deep history of Corsica with an unexplored mystical reality.