The Sundown of Disquiet

The Sundown of Disquiet' draws from both ‘La città del sole’ (The City of the Sun) a philosophical work from 1602 by Calabrian Dominican friar, Tommaso Campanella, and the ‘Book of Disquiet’, one of the Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa’s major works of prose, first published in 1982. In the former, we consider an illuminated city. A polis, characterised by perfect laws and habits; whose foundational values consist of erudition, creativity, wisdom, and both theoretical and practical knowledge. In the latter case, we find ourselves before a book of "confessions," an existential thesis of sorts, or so-called diary of the soul. The text subjects his own streams of consciousness to rigorous examination, then ruminates upon the universe of dark obscurity held by the subconscious. An unknowable depth which, in turn, shapes and defines the tumultuous ways that each of us relates to the external world, also known as the sensible reality. ​ Based on these premises, and with a clear rearrangement of an Aristotelian perspective, the primary intention of 'The Sundown of Disquiet' is to harmoniously synthesise these conflicting hemispheres. This text takes a phenomenological route of inquiry in its aspiration to a new condition of life, within a novel universal order. This order disregards the concept of evil, but only to the extent that the idea of good is necessarily considered the ultimate goal towards which human action must strive. This pursuit leads to a life dedicated to knowledge, conceived as a solemn state of perpetual and invulnerable happiness. ​ To navigate the boundless complexity of the inner world – which in turn reflects upon the external and vice versa – and in order to achieve the aforementioned state of tranquillity, or plication of the soul, one must surrender to the realm of obliviousness. This is the realm that Pessoa himself extensively faced, referred to as the 'Book of Disquiet.' A realm that arises from an undeniable and tormented emotional depth, often confronted by the colossal dilemma encapsulated in "I know not what tomorrow will bring." So, how better not to let yourself be dragged into the silent darkness of uncertainty than to completely entrust oneself to the intimate magic of imagination? ​ Perhaps it is only through such imaginings one can gradually thrash out and inexhaustibly stimulate themes of indisputable importance – those of identity, existence, life, and death – without any fear. Such an approach seeks new expressive languages, and shifting morphologies that whisper of our imperfect world. Where no sunset is so beautiful that it cannot become even more so. At what intensity does the light blaze when the sun takes a position between the aforementioned hemispheres of meaning? What fragments of meaning rest in the dim light at the edges of the penumbra, to whisper gently from a gradient of light that threatens to shine in all its brilliance? And so, the involved artists—Isabella Benshimol Toro, Kim Farkas, Daniel Spivakov, and Uchercie —work to generate a liberal and indefinitely evocative art that operates for culture. It embodies a poetics that consistently promotes new and astonishing stylistic precepts and rules, dedicated to the celebration of beauty, understood as the pure science of feeling. It's a knowledge that is both sensory and emotionally bound, emblematic of the perfection of phenomenal knowledge. ​ Isabella Benshimol Toro, whose practice ranges from performance to photography, sculpture to installation, primarily works with used clothing, epoxy resin, and silicone. Her work aims to capture in time the fleeting actions, gestures, and sensations of daily domestic life. She creates a series of monuments to the unconscious and intimate reactions of the body. Her focus lies on moments ranging from throwing sweaty clothes on the floor to the act of meticulously caring for them by hanging, ironing, and drying them. Of crucial importance is the timeframe in which the porousness of a wet white shirt covers the redness of her skin. All her works tend to respond to unusual yet familiar domestic actions and gestures that, in turn, become bodily, often teetering between a sense of pleasure and discomfort, cleanliness and dirt. Kim Farkas, by layering composite materials through plays of transparency and softly moiré reflections, creates worlds within which objects are revealed. In this internal activity, all forms, ideas, and materials become channels of both political and spiritual power. The result is captivating and vivid sculptures, visibly marked by hybrid forms inspired simultaneously by technology and the body—swarming and captivating, inherently active within themselves. ​ Speaking only his mother tongue during this period, art necessarily became a fundamental vehicle of communication for Daniel Spivakov. The combination of a post-Soviet education and adolescence spent in the southern United States allowed Spivakov to develop a unique worldview from which he regularly draws during all phases of his creative process. His is a resounding and visceral painting—a sort of tumultuous stream of consciousness, fearless and constantly evolving. It teeters, never in opposition, between bread and flesh, flowers and cannons, impetuous light and deep darkness, apparent stasis and continuous movement. ​ Uchercie's practice encompasses, without any limits, poetry, video, image, installation, space study, understood as a field of action, and social intervention. The goal is to investigate the experimental nature of transferable language and context as intermediaries in transmedia narratives. This allows for travelling along the challenging paths typical of distributive platforms and subsequently embodying different media forms, according to the rules of convergence, and expansion. This rich methodology gives rise to an absurd narrative, constructed through processes of contraction and emancipation. It ranges from accelerationism to phenomenology, from the perspective of perception and questioning the uncertainty of the future to post-capitalist desires. All are perfectly embedded in the complex situation of post-human progress. Finally, Uchercie's work is characterised by a captivating fusion of inanimate objects, technology, spirituality, psychotropic anaesthetics, and Daoist beliefs.