WORDS: MILO BAKER // TEAM AFAIC (AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED)
The space between places
Arbitrary, but wound together
A texture of physical and metaphysical.
The air pregnant with effort (the taste of something, smell of something)
A lingering feeling, immortalized.
Effort through space
A transcendental connection between person and place
Reciprocal, worn into the stones of time.
A connection to those before
The energy left behind
Mixed with the new, the now
A Passage
As followers of any given pathway we are always retracing the footsteps of past existence. Moving through space presents this assumption in most cases, but a passage carved into the earth serves as a greater reminder.
To travel is to acknowledge the sacrificial footsteps that allowed movement to be possible in the first place, reinforcing human ties to the land.
Our roads, the layers of mineral and tar woven into the landscape are passages to spaces of cultural meaning, direction, and the metaphysical. For travelers of near and far proximity, these carved paths are not only a way of sharing a specific journey, but a way to share a perspective.
Following the rhythmic movement of locals allows one to understand how and why the land has become home to so many others. It's the repetition and transfer of these routes, these passages, that is how our bodies understand the abstract limits of endurance, and the shared meaning of completing a journey.
Every landscape seems to have a storied high point, a symbolic overlook that supervises the land. For Barcelona it’s Tibidabo, the highest hill in the city, serving as a local pilgrimage site for centuries. Whether by paved road or rugged trail, the passages that serve the summit of Tibidabo are experienced daily by the masses.
The meandering nature of each passage guides the process of personal reflection and providing different outlooks with every turn. It’s why the most storied/special routes of a region are always the least direct. It’s about taking the time to appreciate the land and allow its different points of view to guide the mind.
The longer the passage the further the mind must go to confront the lessons each turn presents, Montserrat, is a well known example. The towering rock formation forms a sacred landscape that attracts both the body and mind to form a pilgrimage.
It’s why stone after stone was heaved up the mountain to create the monastery at its summit, carving its sinuous road passage in the process. Pilgrimages such as Montserrat are storied because of their history, and the shared toil that each soul has experienced in order to conquer them.
It's the dynamism and constant negotiation between physical place, memory, and our bodies that reveals where the equilibrium of our effort lies.
About the project:
In examining the underlying meaning behind this project, one must deconstruct and visualize everything that encompasses the word Passage.
In the context of this piece, this noun becomes a concept, expanding upon the various interpretations of the word itself; a route through something, a continuous flow, a collection of text, an opportunity granted, a specific act of travel.
To pass through something is to immerse one’s senses. To be granted passage is to be taken by the hand and guided by interconnected generations. A passage can be specific but it is almost always continuous. In engaging with this project, the reader is embarking on a passage of their own, bisecting the text and continuing the interpretation of the captured experiences of the metaphysical.
The experiences that form this project lay in the landscape of Catalunya, from the violent entanglement of Barcelona’s urban infrastructure to roads dictated by the curves and growths of geologic conglomerates.
Our experience was guided by the intersecting textures that form the landscape, and cultural terrain of the community we encountered, using endurance as our vehicle to explore the theory of Passages.
This collection of visual artifacts adheres to no linear rules, and is meant to capture the metaphysical elements of the project as the reader immerses themselves.
