La Intimidad

"Intimacy: private space of each person, from a physical, emotional and spiritual level" -------------------------------------------- This series, realized on the streets of Tokyo, proposes a reflection about the value of intimacy in “developed” societies. Defining "intimacy" as the private space of each person from a physical, emotional and spiritual point of view. And how the mutual respect for this "space", is possible in a society that perceives that fact as a common good. Surely, some of first images that come to mind of the Japanese capital, are urban highways which run between haughty skyscrapers or seemingly chaotic crowds. But there is another reality that goes almost unnoticed, where silence, stillness, respect for others and the community, are present permanently. A reality that these pictures want to convey. But this series isn’t a documentary reflection of the complex and multifaceted Tokyo's society. Neither the concept of "intimacy" as here is presented corresponds exactly to a Japanese feature. Actually, the photos of this series can be contemplated as visual metaphors. My intention has been to use Tokyo's streets as scenario, taking photos of found situations that help me to propose a reflection: Do we respect the feelings, thoughts, physical and vital space, of each individual, in daily interaction with the other members of their society? Maybe by the time we are living, or perhaps by the current time of my life, I'm more and more sensitized about the countless violations or interferences that our "private space" suffers daily in "developed" societies. But I didn’t want to work by the critic way, showing situations that represent bad behaviours. I wanted to show situations that, for me, represent a ideal of respect. I’m sure for many people these pictures can connect with the idea of loneliness, but this wasn't my feeling when I took them. Precisely, I felt an opposite sensation, like a wave of peace. The idea of develop a project about the concept of intimacy as I explained, came to me few years earlier, while I was in Tokyo working in previous projects. Those days in the Japanese megalopolis I felt a level of "intimacy" unimaginable before for me. Nothing related to the idea of loneliness -although from a Western point of view usually it seem so-. During my stays in Tokyo, always my "private space" remained intact. Nobody went through it without my permission. Not a single day, not for a moment. But never I felt alone. Slowly, a feeling of peace and serenity started to wrap me, motivating my return to try to express it into images. This project was made possible by the award in 2010 of a research and creation grant in the visual arts section, by CoNCA (National Council for Culture and Arts, Generalitat de Catalunya).