“Έχω δουλέψει στο μυστήριο της Bolsena και στους θρύλους της, διερευνώντας μεταξύ πραγματικότητας και φαντασίας”, λέει ο φωτογράφος. Το έργο βασίζεται στο έδαφος της Etruria, το οποίο θα μπορούσε να είναι ένα σημείο διέλευσης, “Πόρτα/πέρασμα” προς κάτι αόριστο και μυστήριο”.
Οι Ετρούσκοι θεωρούσαν το νησί της Μπενεντίνα (που βρίσκεται στη μέση της λίμνης) την πνευματική καρδιά ολόκληρου του ετρουσκικού έθνους που φυλάει τα μυστικά τους.
When walking along the shores of Lake Bolsena one is made aware of its distinctive and particular ambience.The water with its many colors and sounds, all of which play a crucial part in the natural cycle of the lake, its flora and fauna. The lake, a fascinating and mysterious place, over which many myths and legends hover.
There are several stories about people going missing on the lake, and never found. The most recent was in 2007, when a man and his young children simply disappeared, and were never found.
Widely held beliefs take us back to the legend of “The Gate of Agarthi” a mythical place located on Bisentina Island, one of only two islands on the lake. Bisentina is believed to be the point of contact between “terra firma” and its mythical parallel – the legendary inner – earth kingdom of Agarthi – described in the work of the author Willis George Emerson (1856 – 1918).
Emerson’s conceptualization was linked to the theory of “Terra Cava” (Hollow Earth), a very popular subject in the field of esotericism and literature, as expounded by Dante Alighieri, who allegedly descended amongst the chosen-few, in order to explore the underground kingdom, and receive its energy called VRYL.
“I have worked on the mystery of Bolsena and on its legends, investigating among reality and fantasy. The work is based on the territory of Etruria that could be a point of passage, the “Door, of passage” towards something of indefinite and mysterious“.
The Etruscans considered the Bisentina island (situated in the middle of the lake) the spiritual heart of the entire Etruscan nation that guard their secrets.
The book
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Prima edizione, 2019
150 copie
22 x 29 cm
80 pages
Brossura cucita
Inglese e Italiano
ISBN: 978-88-32108-07-1
Testi di Simona Guerra e Olivia Casagrande
Buy book on Penisola Edizioni https://www.penisolaedizioni.com/agarthi
Gian Marco Sanna (Rome, 1993) started to experiment with photography at the age of 17, thanks to the passion transmitted by his father, who gifted him an old Pentax for his birthday.
From 2012 to 2015 he has studied at the Roman School of Photography, where he has acquired the techniques from analogue to digital photography.
In 2015 he started to attend the D.O.O.R. Academy, experimenting with documentary photography.
From 2015 to 2017 he has worked in the area of Malagrotta in Rome, where the biggest dump in Europe is located.
In 2016 he found L.I.S.A. collective.
He has already published his works on several international magazines.
In 2017 the publishing house Urbanautica printed his first book Malagrotta, which was presented during the Paris Photo at Mi Galerie in Paris and
at Fotofever in 2019. The same project was also exhibited in Rome at 001 Gallery, during the Roman photographic walks, an event organized by MIBACT, at the Gallery Lombardi Arte in Siena, at the RiBella Art gallery in Viterbo during Caffeina Event and at Officine fotografiche in Milan.
Malagrotta project was also the winner of the Bi foto Prize, which is held every year in Sardinia, and the finalist of Premio Marco Pesaresi 2018, Premio Voglino 2018 and of Emerging Talents Contest in 2018.
In September 2019 he published “AGARTHI” with the publisher Penisola Edizioni his second work about Lake Bolsena on which he had worked on for the past five years. The project had already been exhibited at Grenze Arsenali Fotografici Festival 2019 in Verona, at Cascina Farsetti Art in Rome and at the Gibellina PhotoRoad in Sicily.
Two of Gian Marco Sanna’s prints have been selected to become part of the collection of Fondazione Orestiadi in Gibellina.
AGARTHI win the Parallel Voices 2020 at Photometria Festival in Greece.
Gian Marco has worked on many assignments for many magazines of documentary photography, including Youthies magazine and SUQ magazine.
Co-founder of L.I.S.A. (means “Look inside yourself and…”) http://www.lookinsideyourselfand.com/
