Fotógrafa | Dire de Foto | Artista Visual
Nature of Culture - Culture of Nature
2014 - Summary
Habitat
Video-installation and photography amalgamate in Habitat to define a favourable Environment, not only for reflection but also for aesthetic contemplation. Through video installation the spectator is invited for the first time to be a part of her work, therefore, they are also invited to wonder about the relationship between men and nature.
(...) our society has forgotten that we are a part of nature, that we come from nature and that it rules over us, those are the reasons why we shall come back to nature.
Heimat
The uncertainty is no longer a fear but an element that has introduced itself into our lives. The attitude we have adopted accepts ambiguity more and more, changes and insecurity entail a new personality struggle. Modern Culture is characterized by being risky, since the lack of movement is taken as a synonymous of failure, and stability is conceived as living death.
In case this new paradigm is accepted and assumed, the disorientation that means to us this new scenery, that is still strongly keeping imaginaries from the past, would be a problem.
What Dreams Are Made Of
In Collaboration with Sara Bounajm
I couldn’t stop thinking about all of the places that I have already visited and the memories that the landscapes and I built together. I saw myself walking those paths, leaving behind all my old languages and finding a new one. I wondered whether they would stay where I left them once I come back, when I already knew what migration implies: a continuous dialogue between my past and my present.
This Book contains little photographic series that illustrate stories and reflexions about life. What Dreams Are Made Of is the first issue of my monthly photobooks edited by Grundkreuz (Berlin).
Feelings
In Collaboration with Nuria García & Jose Antonio Vallejo
"Under the title “Feelings” we can find an artist book that gathers the authors Irene Cruz, Jose Antonio Vallejo and Nuria García. The construction of a trialogue story where three different types of narrative, photography, texts and drawings, converge complementing each other in perfect harmony. This is an introspective story about the search of one’s identity, the emotional significance and interpersonal relationships"
Die Stille
The Silence
The Silence is the biggest power that exists, although this one is invisible. Because everything what exists there are partial aspects of the silence. Everything what exists is generated in what does not exist, in what it does not appear.
To open to the silence is to open to the entire, unconditional potential. To explain this I base on a reflection: To compose music, there is so necessary the sound, like the silence.
Berlin-based photographer Irene Cruz uses still and moving images to explore her presence in the natural world. Her short film “Die Stille” takes place during the blue light of the crepuscular hour. What first appears to be a still image of silhouetted trees surrounding the cove in a natural vignette is quickly interrupted by motion. Emerging from behind the camera, Cruz enters the frame, slowly making her way into the water. Clothed in a simple dress and silhouetted against the water she loses any identifying characteristics. Her hands, held at waist level, disturb the water’s surface, creating ripples that fan out like a dancer’s skirt. The delicate classical soundtrack contrasts against the sharp sounds of splashing water. The film ends as it began with Cruz walking out of the water, back behind the camera. This small gesture reminds us of our role as an audience in this record of an artist’s performance.
Kat Kiernan
Waldeinsamkeit
Irene Cruz’s composition is a metaphor of the alliance between the “newfound me” and Nature, explaining the complexity of Waldeinsamkeit without using one single word – only pictures and gestures. The loneliness of the woods favours the encounter with the “transcendental me”, and Irene embraces it as an act of naïve gratitude. Meanwhile, a hand sinks in the ivies while the other one grasps her own body – feeling their differences, and feeling their union.
