When the moon trembled on the calm river, it was the night the fishermen disappeared, my aunt used to say. She lived in northern Colombia, inland, near the Guatapurí River. Aunt Zunilda told me this while we sat on my grandmother’s terrace. I was a child, she was a woman who had married late and hadn’t been able to have children.
Many men went out fishing when the moon was full and never returned.
From the stormy waters of the Amazon in Brazil, through the dangerous waters of the Magdalena River in Colombia, to the Venezuelan Orinoco River, stories are told of fishermen disappearing during the full moon. Only one young fisherman survived to return, telling of a vision: A beautiful, dark-skinned woman with long hair was singing on the riverbanks. Illuminated by the moon, it blended into its reflection, disappearing into the depths of the river and carrying with her every fisherman enchanted by its beauty.
At the end of my aunt’s story, my very rational mother explained that there were no women in the river, that on nights of a full moon, just when the tide rises, the rivers are also more dangerous and the fishermen more distracted, besides being drunks celebrating their big catch of the full moon.
In any case, Magical Realism was always present in my life.
The cool breeze from the sea blew across the terrace of my grandmother’s house. There was plenty of time for telling stories, plenty of time to appreciate the moon, without the glare of giant television screens or cell phones, with only a few streetlights in the fishing village. The nostalgia for those peaceful, unhurried moments, enough time to see the fireflies and count them one by one, inspired me to create LUNA, a luminous installation composed of wings and triangles made of porcelain paper mix.
For several months, each fragment was handcrafted, hand-polished, and firing within a support to prevent warping or breakage, then washed and sanded. Finally, the entire installation was patiently strung together over several weeks and hung from a specially designed LED ceiling light.
I ask myself now: What happened to my childhood moon?
I no longer have time to see it on a serene, clear night, filled with fireflies, testimony of an incontaminated nature.
And you, do you have time to hug someone while looking at the moon?
Do you have time to have a glass of wine while looking at the moon?
Have you heard “the moon is beautiful” from the one you love?
This is a poetic and veiled way of saying “I love you” in Japanese…
