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“It seems that the only certainty is that man was born on earth but his future is the stars, the universe and the uncertainty of knowing himself lonely in this unknown dimension.”-Tolo Parra

‘Obscuria de Profundis’ was developed from 2016 to 2020. It is a search for visual answers to the riddle of existence. Tolo uses everyday objects that correspond with allegorical objects in the cosmos. They illustrate the path that the species have traveled from its origin to the present time. Looking for the resolution of the oldest enigma, that of existence:

What are we?
Where do we come from?
Where are we going?

It remains the main reason that moves the species to continue. From the dark path to the light of knowledge.

Parra's photographs are mixed with found images to create a visual dialogue between eras and matter. Attempting to answer, though fiction, those real questions.

“Perhaps man has done nothing else since his birth as a species rather than wandering in an infinite desert of nothing. A dark and unknown dimension to his consciousness in which his only destiny is the eternal search. Although the result is always to get the answer that he still knows nothing and that silence is the only answer infinity gives him.”-Tolo Parra

Published and designed by Void in 2020, the book concept was developed by Tolo Parra in collaboration with the awarded editor Gonzalo Golpe.

The book is divided in 6 chapters, presenting the narrative arch of the universe: between the initial and the final “nothing”… all the history of mankind.

‘Obscuria de Profundis’ received the kind support of the Universidad de Cádiz. It is released on the occasion of the exhibition ‘Obscuria de Profundis by Tolo Parra’, that takes place in the Kursala Gallery of the University of Cádiz.

Tolo Parra
Tolo Parra (1980) born and based in Seville (Spain), uses photography to get closer to his surroundings and himself. His observations have led him to make innumerable trips in search of the landscape and the human cartography found imprinted on it. The periphery, the peri-urban zones, the border zones, and the wilderness, are some of his flags.

Parra’s work shows us a new metalanguage. Fiction as a consequence of reality and the impossible, the result of truth. Melancholy and longing are constant in it.

In recent years he has exhibited in Spain, Mexico, and England. Tolo received the honorable mention of the Annual Prize for the Arts of the Government of Japan (2007), and the recent annual exhibition access at the Center for Cultural Initiatives of Seville: CICUS 2016-2017. Tolo Parra is a founding member of the Spanish photography school DarkRoom. There he combines his role as an author with that of teacher and coordinator.