Walk by day because night is ours
by Alejandra Vacuii
Galicia, a Spanish region in the Northwest, is a territory of myths and superstitions that go back to the night of time. One of these legends is La Santa Compaña, a procession of souls led by a living person with a cross who goes out every night through the woods announcing death. There is only one way to get rid of their curse: meet another living person and give them the cross. In the sepulchral silence that occurs as it appears, it can only be heard from time to time some soul screaming "walk by day because the night is ours!".
Today, pessimism and hopelessness seem to have settled in Western societies as a response to the economic, health, ecological and moral crises that we have been chaining for years. As hauntology predicted, there is a general feeling that the future has been cancelled: we can no longer imagine a better future, the idea of progress has disappeared, and instead of feeling that the world is improving it seems that we are headed towards disaster without warning. The fear floats in the air as if something terrible is going to happen, is the end of the world near?
Walk by day because the night is ours tells the metaphorical story of this omen. Through the legend of La Santa Compaña, which has been a warning that death was near when the Galician people still believed in the supernatural, this project tells us about this pessimistic hunch that is contaminating our current feeling. Something dark, mournful and terrible is about to happen. Like the people who were with La Santa Compaña in the middle of a dark and silent forest, we are being warned of the arrival of death.
Bio
Alejandra Vacuii (1987) is a Spanish visual artist based in A Coruña (Spain). She is graduated in Artistic Photography and has completed her MA in Photographic Creation at Escuela Lens where she was awarded with a scholarship in 2021. In her work, she's looking for a poetic space where she can express herself through dense and mysterious images. Her projects revolve around abstract sensations and emotions such as loss, melancholy, nostalgia or anxiety.
She has participated in multiple exhibitions in Europe since 2009 (Istanbul, Berlin, Madrid). Her work has been reviewed in numerous digital media (Fisheye Magazine, Phroom Platform, C41 Magazine, Sola Journal). She has been selected to participate in photo festivals such as Getxophoto, Descubrimientos PHotoESPAÑA, SCAN Tarragona or Imaginària. She has publish her work in different collective publications and recently her project La Mala Fortuna was published by UFCA Collective (2023) as a printed work in the fanzine Fotofobia.
Website: https://www.alejandravacuii.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lamalafortuna/