SANA SANA - Rosa Lacavalla
With her latest project, “Sana Sana”, Rosa Lacavalla (b. 1993, Italy) documents her journey towards inner healing (healing that comes from the inside to the outside) and the slow and delicate process of recovery from emotional wounds. The series is named after a popular song that, in Spanish speaking countries, mothers sing to their children to calm them when they are hurt.
“Sana Sana, colita de rana, si no sanas hoy, sanarás mañana”
(Heal, heal... If you don't heal today, you will heal tomorrow)
Sang countless times to teary-eyed children with bruised knees, this simple song has become a ritual, born out of love, and its words have acquired a magical belief: if you repeat these verses out loud, you will start to heal.
The images that compose "Sana Sana" work in a similar way. Working with the presence of the absence and Photography's power to show what is hidden, Rosa documents her journey towards emotional healing and personal growth. Her images dance between the subtleties of the everyday and bring the spectator the comforting feeling of a healing ritual. As she explains, her work takes place somewhere in between the feelings of Saudade (a Portuguese term to describe melancholy or longing for something or someone absent) and Sehnsucht (a yearning for something that has not happened yet). It is through the act of photographing that Rosa explores this unresolved nostalgia.