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2014 41°08’24’’ North latitude // 16°50’49’’ East longitude
| still from the video | ___ I chase the sea and the wind, through the folds of this city woven with layered history. In its people, guardians of memory, I seek a transmission for which I may become the keeper. A voice suspended in the lighthouse’s beam, to return to the water, plunging into the depths only to resurface within us, echoing like the rhythm of the waves. ___
It isn’t just a fleeting dream that vanishes, nor an almost timeless journey granting brief access to the secret life of this towering gray structure with its crystal-refracting dome. It is a true revelation—your introduction to the blazing, windswept peninsula of San Cataldo (41°08’24’’ North latitude // 16°50’49’’ East longitude).
A prime lens: its light reaches 21 and a half miles, sighted by ships just as they emerge beyond the head of Santa Maria di Leuca. The lighthouse’s sea lane cuts through the darkness with a steady white light—six circular rays, each lasting forty seconds—piercing both the distant horizon and the dark inland. Those who manage to climb to this forgotten height, breathless, could tell of wonders. The view from this eagle’s nest is nothing short of breathtaking. From sixteen crevices along the ascent, the panorama stretches endlessly, and despite the icy gusts, the spirit is swept away into romantic reverie. From this vantage point, it commands the wilderness, the countless villages, and traces the winding roads. It becomes master over nature and mankind, land and sea, stretching to the four cardinal points. Up there, the colorful splendor and kaleidoscopic play of light captivate. Ecstatic solitude reigns, where silence soars so high and weightless that even memory dissolves. (Anonymous document, Lighthouse of San Cataldo archive, Bari, Italy)
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