SOLARIS
A photographic lens made from sand of the Atacama Desert.
The Atacama Desert, in Chile, is the most arid place on Earth; its atmospheric conditions make it the perfect site for astronomical observations. Over time this immense territory has hosted many different human populations, including the Incas, and nowadays impressive telescopes are installed there.
‘Solaris’ takes its inspiration from the sci-fi classic of the same title, by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem, which explored a potential type of intelligence that does not derive from a brain, but, rather, from the sea of a distant planet called ‘Solaris’.!
In this new adaptation of Solaris, by Artist Oscar Santillán, sand gathered at the Atacama Desert was first melted becoming glass. This glass was then turned into photographic lenses. These ‘desert eyes’ were brought back to the Atacama desert and used to photograph its landscape.!
Display of the photographic lens made from desert sand.
Photographs taken with the lens.
Solaris
Analog slide projection showing the 24 photographs produced by means of that lens when photographing the same desert.
