TIERRA ADENTRO

TIERRA ADENTRO / IN LAND
Dear Patrick Liotta:

As these last years of my life go by the more I defend both in fragments of interviews and in reports or articles, the immense value held up by these ancient, aboriginal cultures. A value that stands out, stark in a dehumanized world - The line of thought of Illuminist, Encyclopedism and Positivism has underrated, and at times simply scorned those age - old cultures, their myths and their worship full of wisdom in the sense of “sage not of savant”. These cultures have been the guardians of the mystery that lies in the depths of human soul, which is always the same everywhere and ever. That wisdom has been considered as a mark of backwardness by the arrogant western civilization, now facing complete destruction due to atomic energy. These cultures have preserved the basic value of human nature esteemed as both sacred and eternal by every romantic and existential movement.
I congratulate you for these pictures, they are beautiful and significant of everything I’ve just stated.

With great affection,

Ernesto Sábato
19th December

Buy this book

A critcal study of the "Cinical reasoning" by Rael Salvador.

12 notes on Patrick Liotta's photography.

"There will always be that stubborn few; heroes, saints and artists who, in
their lives, are able to get a share of the absolute". Ernesto Sábato.

A distant land

I

Inland, a distant land? Where are those happily tired men from? What unknown
cloud led them towards this southern desert?
A heaven loaded with silence? Time eroded routes?

II

The American night has the sound of feet treading on ashes. Here we can find a passage, a broken mountain chain, a wide apart reconciliation of temptations, a something flying like a silvery shadow within the sound of light

III

Light turns a face into a sound. Patrick Liotta knows about visual justice.
He takes his camera and leaves his trace on the features of a face. Light is the language used by the reality of the spirit.
In the photographer's alphabet, Light is a seed that gives way, a constellation that blossoms.

IV

Far away, right in the heart of this silvery land; the gaze is a symbol, a spot of light, a warehouse of fertile dreams. Gladness is pure; fresh, free from logic reasoning and it is there for us to see.
It is a brook that children, men and women give.
It extends and reaches far away places just like love. Gladness is therefore hidden from the eye. We have to guess it. A smiling eye and face are vibrations, a material revelation with which we are sometimes presented. Far away, right in the heart of this silvery land; the gaze is a symbol, a spot of light, a warehouse of fertile dreams.
Gladness is pure; fresh, free from logic reasoning and it is there for us to see. It is a brook that children, men and women give.
It extends and reaches far away places just like love. Gladness is therefore, hidden from the eye. We have to guess it. A smiling eye and face are vibrations, a material revelation with which we are sometimes presented.

V

Southern riches have always been a temptation for the hunters from the North.
Then they were safeguarded by their respective armies and merchants working for the European Powers and Kingdoms. But Amerindia, carved in transparent stone, is a world within a diamond. Its faces are the many lights, the many Argentine voices that represent Her: the Mapuche; the Vichi; the Toba; the Kolla; the Mbya-Guarani; the Chane; the Pilaga; the Mocovi.

VI

Deep inside, behind the eye and the gaze, Patric. Liotta tries to tell us that, as concealed, happiness lies within the anger.
What he visualizes is a desperate call for justice. This helps to the growth of hope. Hope that shapes the ritual formed by that mysterious strength; the doors that open towards a deep well of elation as if they were a cloak or an eye immersed in light.

VII

Wrinkled as a new born cat; "Lonco", Juan Sargento Prafil, resembles a portrait of Henry Miller sitting on the plain, silently watching his grandchildren play with trains made of rock.
What does that clever soldier see or remember?
Is "Lonco" there after all?
Is He there to remind us that Love is stronger than Death?

VIII

I do know an awkwardly uncivil image. A snapshot taken by a German ethnographic expedition in 1939. There we face the compulsive vulnerability of an Indian from Tierra del Fuego. It is not photography but the image of rape. He holds his head with his hands and his eyes shine with tears he cannot run freely. A "real mixture of emotions that would be a lack of respect to intend its understanding" as Alberto Manguel says.
But Tierra Adentro is far from these considerations. The purity of an almost shy discretion is shown here together with the worthy human value of brotherhood harmoniously celebrating the Indian pride.

IX

Argentina is the native land of talented and gifted photographers: Daniel Garcia, Pablo Lazanky, Marcelo Setton, Eduardo Longoni, Dani Yako, Daniel Merle, and many other professionals of visualization who, forced to exile after Jose Luis Cabezas murder, never forgot their commitment of reminding us of our Right to Happiness. A voice for those who are unable to speak, Patrick Liotta is related to all of us. He was born in USA in 1968 but spent his childhood and youth in B.A. Tierra Adentro is a visual document of exceptional distances, where we can see the joy of living that is natural to the Indian communities of Patagonia.

X

They are brothers and sisters of our Zapatista brothers and sisters. Poor, they deserve nothing. They harden their faces yet they cover them with light, with the river and the wind. They do not want to lose the fondness of their song and music nor de ashes that make them eternal. These are our Indian brothers and sisters, just like the Kiliwas and the Kumiais. These men and women of this Southern part of the world are the owners of a sacred spirit. They move their faces as if they were returning
-Like the New Moon-

XI

Lords of their Destiny, these Indians from the South come to see us; their images guard Patrick Liotta's work. His words and his silent reflections. Patrick Liotta is a clever and avid searcher of the faces, ways and landscapes of the icy South of Argentina. He will present his book in the 2nd International Expo of Contemporary Art this Saturday, 30 September, at 7 P.M. in the premises of the Historical Regional Museum of Ensenada. As the Lords of Our Destiny, these Indian people show us their dignity to help us recover ours.

XII

Inland (Tierra Adentro) Cukierman Sanchez Editors 2006; is Patrick Liotta's ten years' time effort. Along these years he has collaborated Professionally with Associated Press, The Times, Le Monde, La Nacion, Clarin, Luna Cornea, Caras, Traveler, First, Vogue, Marie Claire. He compiles 84 black and white photography's. It is fore worded by Jose Luis Castineira de Dios and by a letter by Ernesto Sabato dedicated to the author. Here it is established that, in a solidarity campaign together with Green Peace, the profit wil be donated to the original peoples of Argentina.

***

TIERRA ADENTRO / IN LAND
Patrick Liotta, Mansajero de la Memoria

Rael Salvador
rael_art@hotmail.com

“Siempre habrá algunos empecinados, héroes
santos y artistas, que en sus vidas y en sus
obras alcanzan pedazos de absoluto”.
Ernesto Sábato.

I
CAMINOS DE TIEMPO

Tierra adentro, ¿tierra distante? ¿De dónde son estos hombres de cansancio alegre? ¿Qué nube los guió a este desierto austral? ¿Cielos de silencio? ¿Caminos de tiempo?

II
NOCHE AMERICANA

Ceniza es el sonido de los pasos de la Noche Americana. Hay aquí un pasaje, una cordillera rota, una espaciada reconciliación de tentaciones, algo que vuela como sombra de plata en el sonido de la luz.

III
LLAMA VIVA

Piel del sur, danza bajo los pies, barro que se extiende del fuego como un verso. Con la hoguera, la llama viva del viento alimenta el testimonio: Amerindia, después del día que casi mueres, todos los días malos son días buenos. Ver, es recuperar las imágenes del sueño, la memoria vuelta fotografía.

IV
RASTRO SOBRE EL ROSTRO

La luz hace del rostro una voz. Él, Patrick Liotta, sabe de la justicia visual. Alza su cámara y escribe su rastro sobre el rostro. Entonces la luz es el lenguaje que utiliza la realidad del espíritu como palabra. La luz, en el abecedario del fotógrafo, una semilla que se abre, una constelación que germina.

V
EL OJO Y LA SONRISA

Al fondo, en el corazón de esta tierra platinada, cantarina, la mirada es un signo, un atisbo lumínico, un depósito de sueños fértiles. La alegría, pura, fresca, intuitiva, se encuentra manifiesta, es fuente que escurre de lo niños, del hombre y de la mujer, y se propaga, como el amor, por el ojo y la sonrisa. Piel adentro, vibración afuera, la sonrisa del ojo es sentimiento, cuerpo ofreciéndonos su revelación.

VI
AMERINDIA

La piel de Sur es la tentación del desollador del Norte, como antes lo fue, resguardados por sus respectivos ejércitos y mercaderes, de las trasnacionales de la Corona Europea. Pero... tallada en piedra transparente, Amerindia es un mundo dentro de un diamante. Sus rostros son las muchas luces, las muchas voces argentinas que dan testimonio de ella: La Mapuche, la Wichi, la Toba, la Kolla, la Mbya-Guarani, la Chane, la Pilagá, la Mocoví...

VII
ABISMO DE LUZ

Ojo adentro, el fotógrafo Patrick Liotta parece decirnos que hay alegría en la rabia de mirar. Justicia que enseña a la visión a germinar en la esperanza. Por eso el ritual, la fuerza embriagada del misterio, la puerta del éxtasis que se abre como un pozo, como una capa, como una pupila, al abismo de la luz.

VIII
LA “SIEMPREGORRA”

Arrugado, como gato prematuro, “Lonco”, Juan Sargento Prafil es la imagen viva de un Henry Miller en las estepas, observando silencioso jugar a sus nietos con trenes de piedras...
¿Qué ve en el tiempo de la memoria esa mirada de inteligente vigilia? ¿Estará, “Lonco”, sentado donde sentado está, con su siempregorra, recordándonos que el amor es más fuerte que la muerte?

IX
PUREZA Y DISCRECIÓN

Conozco una imagen de torpe insociabilidad, tomada en 1939 por una expedición etnográfica alemana. En ella aparece la vulnerabilidad obligada de un indígena de Tierra del fuego...
No es una fotografía, sino el reflejo de una violación. Las manos le sostienen la cabeza, en sus ojos hay lágrimas contenidas, “una mezcla --como sostiene Alberto Manguel-- de emociones que sería impertinente interpretar”.
Que lejos está Tierra Adentro de todo eso. Aquí la pureza es la discreción, el valor humano de la hermandad celebrando armoniosamente el orgullo indígena.

X
LUZ ARGENTINA

Argentina es tierra de talentosos fotógrafos: Daniel García, Pablo Lazanky, Marcelo Setton, Eduardo Longoni, Dani Yako, Daniel Merle y muchos otros profesionales de la mirada que, en el exilio obligado o ante el artero asesinato de José Luis Cabezas, no olvidaron jamás su compromiso de recordarnos nuestro Derecho a la Alegría.
Voz de los sin voz, pariente de todos nosotros, Patrick Liotta, nacido EEUU(en 1968), pero que toda su infancia y juventud la pasó en Buenos Aires, nos obsequia en Tierra Adentro, documento visual de latitudes excepcionales, la natural alegría de vivir que se gesta en las comunidades indígenas de la Patagonia.

XI
MENSAJERO DE LA MEMORIA

Hermanos de nuestros hermanos Zapatistas, indígenas igual de pobres y que también nada merecen, endurecen el rostro y lo bañan de luz, de río, de viento, para no perder la ternura del canto ni la ceniza que los vuelve eternos.
Hermanos indígenas, como los Kiliwa y los Kumiai, los hombres de este sur, hombres de espíritu sagrado, elevan su rostro de retorno, como luna nueva.
Patrick Liotta, mensajero de la memoria, viene a nosotros con una cámara dilatada por el parto y un brillante libro que asemeja un ramo de fulgor y permanencia.

XII
TIERRA ADENTRO / IN LAND

Tierra Adentro / In Land (Cukierman Sánchez Editores, 2006), trajinar de una década, del fotógrafo Patrick Liotta, que ha trabajado profesionalmente y colaborado con Associated Press, The Times, Le Monde, La Nación, El Clarín, Luna Córnea, Caras, Traveler, First, Vogue, Marie Claire, recoge 84 imágenes en blanco y negro, con introducción de José Luis Castiñeira de Dios y un escrito dedicado al autor por Ernesto Sábato, dando muestra testimonial del universo indígena austral, resaltando que las ventas generadas, en una campaña solidaria con Green Peace “Este no es un libro, es un ladrillo”, serán donadas a los pueblos originarios de Argentina.