SAKURA, 2015
CARTÚ in collaboration with:
Sergio Beltrán, Pablo Goldin, Mariel Kadise, Prince Láuder, Natalia Lomelí and Luciana Villegas.
The cherry blossom contains within its petals an intimate story of the transformation of the Japanese landscape upon the arrival of spring. The journey narrated in these pages begins at the end of the silent dying moments of the winter, from the first moments when the pink buds sprout, like a portent that stains the paths with flowers to announce the start of a new era. The latent possibility of renovation and change is the message shared by a culture that has risen from atomic darkness, feeding off the pain to nourish the strength of its thought.
Sakura is the flower that never withers; when its time in this world ends, its everlasting beauty separates from the branches and floats gently to the ground. Its vital strength is such that even
at the end of its life it does not look defeated or weak, and is therefore the ideal representation of the unbreakable spirit of the nation of bamboo.
The role of spring in the Japanese imagination is that of a metamorphosis of the horizon and of the mind. In order to exist we have to go through a series of cycles, until we acknowledge our capacity to be reborn and rebuild ourselves several times in a single life. This project is a symbol of that constant renovation, by portraying the wholeness of the cherry blossom, full of vitality, as a reminder and a metaphor of ephemeral moments: chapters of our own story made up of those passing and unforgettable instants in which we love, laugh, cry and create.
The wandering soul of Cartú sent him off for three months in search of the first flowers of the year in various cities and temples of Japan, without realizing that, while he immortalized and collected the island’s most beautiful spots in photographs, he recognized himself from the point of view of someone who is still seduced by the secrets of nature.
Text by Natalia Lomelí
Photos & Videos: Cartú and Sergio Beltrán
