Et In Arcadia Ego
Orson Wells once described bullfighting as both “indefensible and irresistible” and it is a practice which maintains a divided appeal today. Rooted in centuries of tradition, Spain’s bullfights are a ritualistic spectacle, which have become increasingly controversial in recent times.
Produced in a variety of locations across Spain, Et In Arcadia Ego takes the act of bullfighting as a backdrop on which to discuss the human imprint on the world. Journeying from Madrid down into Andalucia, the project culminated in a stay in Seville during the ‘Feria de abril de Sevilla’, a two-week long fair held annually to celebrate the beginning of Spring, it hosts nightly bullfights in the city’s 18th Century bullring.
The work combines the spaces used for bullfighting with the ruined remains of an ancient Roman amphitheatre on the outskirts of the city. In exploring the topography of ruins, both historic and contemporary, crumbling facades and neglected city walls come to depict the ephemerality of human civilisation and a decaying world at odds with its utopian ideals.