Emilio Pemjean, Palimpsest IX, 2013, Photography

“Palimpsest IX” 2013 Emilio Penjeam Palimpsest IX. An der Elbe 33, Dresde (Germany), circa 1811. Painter's house. Unknown architect. Destroyed. (Kaspar David Friedrich in his studio). Printed with mineral pigmented ink, cotton paper Hahnemühle photo rag, aluminium dibond, wood frame and glass. Limited edition of 5 prints and 2 for the author. The project is a journey through architectures which are today non-existent but yet recognizable and turned into references and collective myths in painting. The selected architectures are those represented in masterpieces of painting. They have been undressed and recreated, using scaled models, completing and representing spaces partially hidden by the objects used in the painting. The project reveals a temporary and dimensional transformation process through time that begins with the original and old construction of the space, its later use and decoration for the purpose of the painting, its decline and final destruction, its reconstruction through a model and its photographic process (and the model destruction). Reviving the room spaces and returning them to their third dimension with the construction of models (with a picture taken later) in a game of transmutation of languages that goes from architecture to painting, sculpture to photography, and finally inviting us to a reinterpretation of these spaces as a symbol. This process of alchemy (a process deeply associated with the purpose of obtaining photographic images), of overwriting is referred to in the title of this series: palimpsest. The naked space that is photographed feels like a palimpsest, preserving traces of one or more overlapping and partially deleted writings and inviting a reading of multiple layers that communicate among themselves (and with other pictures) suggesting a new perception of the represented space, its value as a symbol and its ability to represent a particular socio-economic, cultural and political order.