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TA PROHM - THE MEMORY OF THE WORLD (2002)

MATERNAL INSTINCT

MATERNAL INSTINCT

It was in the very place where a particular ruin of an extinct Hindu civilization merged organically with nature , that I photographed in 2001 Ta Prohm in Cambodia, Siem Reap . For many years I believe that trees have a perception and a very particular form of intelligence that reveals itself sometimes in a way so obvious, which is interpreted by man, as if it were a mere curiosity.

When in 1432 the Khmer agrarian monarchy abandoned that city, the site of a unique civilization, the rainforest re-took his rightful place. But interpreted it and respected it. The nature established a bond of complementarity with the constructions made ruins. But not ruined, it held them. Interpreted the architectural structure, merged with the stone and thus became inseparable.

And for about half a millennium Nature has built a unique experience of complementarily with the constructions of Man. In 1863 Angkor was re-announced to the Western world by Henri Mouhot, a French naturalist on an British Royal Geographic Society expedition . Today Ta Prohm is the only architectural relic that still retains the marks of time as they were witnessed at Angkor about 150 years ago.

Had neither planned nor anticipated this project. A rainy morning when I entered that “space” I felt touched , and immediately made the decision to return alone, later. So, there stayed for several hours. Firstly, looking and exploring.

Meanwhile crowds of tourists came and went like tidal waves, noisy and visually polluting . The silence that was hovering in the short intervals between the tides of tourists, gave back dignity to this small shrine of the Memory of the World . On these small intervals was photographing slowly, as if it were a ritual . I only stopped when the light began to fail.

When I returned to Portugal processed films, to preserve them. Later selected and print some negatives of the photographs I show. I like to let ripen the images, so I can look in a fresh way. While writing this text I have decided to reassess the contact prints of this project, and possibly increase the number of selected images in this body of work.

In buildings or compartments where the presence of nature was eradicated, walls and ceilings collapsed. Nature has become the hand that holds those who remain. As if a maternal instinct "possessed" this rainforest.

Júlio de Matos
May, 2010