A Surreal Republic, Chapter II
A bizarre beauty
A Surreal Republic by Olga de la Iglesia, Chapter II
In Santo Domingo I spent long months far from the touristic routes, immersed in this extended time where everything looks like it has always been there, in an eternal and slow decay. I knew nothing and nobody when I landed there, I was alone and nude, 10 years after that journey with my parents. The Dominican Republic had changed a lot since my first time there and I had changed a lot too.
The abandoned buildings with the bright and intense colours give them a sort of dignity, like saying they are still there and exist. The weird construction sites popping up near the main squares, with huge dig holes with a caribbean backdrop. The rich and wealthy areas, still holding an atmosphere of slight tropical mystery.
In the Dominican Republic, the present, the past, and the future lie in the same line.
As many, the Dominican Republic is a country whose people saw their rights violated for a long time: the country is full of natural resources snatched by the corrupted politicians to hugely enrich themselves. Low education caps the story. Nobody says anything. All of this makes for a country without axis or easy keys of interpretation and this can be seen in the space all around.
I’m deeply interested in the shapes and the colours we use to design and fill the spaces that surrounds us.
A space tells everything about the people living in it, their personality, energy, and their way of looking at life. This is why, through a space, its architecture, its shops, its abandoned houses and wal-marts, we can sense how real the people from a country had been living, how they are living and —most importantly— how they are going to live in the future.
I feel like the city turns its back to human beings, in the way it is designed and conceived.
I take a walk through Santo Domingo. The Colonial zone, located on the west bank of the Ozama river which runs through the city, embracing you with its warm and colourful atmosphere. The banks of the Ciudad Colonial host the core of the original native colonisation which had settled long before Columbus arrived in the New World. Far from the colonial downtown, there are hostile areas, grey and urbanised, chaotic and hectic, of which I would only remark the relentless intensity of the heat and the noise. The noise. You don’t see so many people walking down the street, everybody drives and avoids walking. I feel vulnerable. (Continues)
Photography. Olga de la Iglesia
Artwork. Àngela Palacios
Word. Vincenzo Angileri with Olga de la Iglesia
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Olga de la Iglesia
Photographer
Olga de la Iglesia is a Barcelona-based photographer and art director whose work explores fashion through primary colours and shapes. Olga works both on commissioned and personal projects. She also writes, and from time to time, she paints and does collages.
@olgadelaiglesia
