Faraway so Close

In the paradox between tradition and modernity, alienation and belonging converge, revealing the complexity of human duality. Unstable roots and feelings of estrangement and loneliness seek a delicate balance between what is lost and what remains.

Faraway so Close stems from the need to explore the subtle dualism between alienation and belonging, conflicting emotions that have always shaped my personal experience, as well as from the desire to understand how these themes resonate within the lives of others. The project was developed between Thailand and Vietnam, places where I experienced this tension firsthand and which are central to my research.

In these countries, life unfolds slowly, rooted in daily rituals and deep traditions, while urbanization advances and mass tourism and Westernization gradually permeate habits and environments. Within communities that seem to oscillate between pride and resignation, questions emerge about what it truly means to belong, and how inner conflicts silently take shape.

This reflection materializes through a visual language that combines photography and collage, enriched by the use of pins, elements that can connect, separate, pierce, or mend. They carry a triple meaning: evoking the fragility and pain of distance, symbolizing both spontaneous and imposed connections, and representing time as it accumulates and transforms. Each pin becomes a foreign body that pierces the image, marking its vulnerability.

Faraway so Close unfolds as a continuous movement between margin and center. Each image is a threshold, each collage a map, and each pin a path through the disorder of human relationships.