BOSCO SODI
WHEN I SAW MY REFLECTION
Under the theme of In the Presence of Absence, Desert X AlUla 2024 asks "What cannot be seen?" Often dismissed as spaces of emptiness, deserts are rendered mute, and static, but there is much more than meets the eye. Artists taking part in Desert X AlUla 2024 have been invited to explore ideas of the unseen and the inexpressible. Encouraged to engage with what is not immediately apparent, they stage new encounters with the landscape, imagining alternative perspectives that appreciate the imperceptible forces and atmospheres of time, wind, light, the flows of history, and myths woven into the place.
Images by Lance Gerber © Courtesy of the Royal Commission for AlUla
Bosco Sodi's work WHEN I SAW MY REFLECTION is part of this year's Desert X AIUIa. The artist states: "Following the philosophy of my work, the project WHEN I SAW MY REFLECTION takes advantage of the unique and beautiful organic formations and accidents that already exist in the rock formations, fissures, and divisions that have asserted themselves throughout millions of years. Trying to be as respectful as possible with the site, the idea is to place volcanic rocks glazed with real gold, of different sizes in two opposite rock formations and to let the light of day enter as a variable in the dialogue between them, as it’s absorbed and reflected by the glaze at shifting angles of sunlight. The morning reveals at the same time it overshadows, the afternoon steals its light, and in the midday, they share and create a tension of light between them. The idea is for these rocks to look as if they belonged, as if by the very accident that crafted the formation of the wall, had paired them with its coveted counterpart, and had been there forever. For the duration of the installation, it becomes something that appeared through the erosion of time, a gem written by the rock itself.
Images by Lance Gerber © Courtesy of the Royal Commission for AlUla
This intervention, speaks to impermanence, the passing of time, and our relation with nature, but also about the earthly and divine feeling that you can feel in a site as beautiful and unique as this one. 
Images by Lance Gerber © Courtesy of the Royal Commission for AlUla
The crafted gold creates an upsurge of tension because it transcends its origins, because gold as a concept emanates much more than the accidental process that entails it and surrounds it, it communicates feelings of purity, innocence, and even a connection with the divine, creating a receptive dichotomy between letting go of the reigns and a sort of apparent orchestration. Gold may just be a peculiar yellow metal, but when it is received by people as it will be in Al Ula, when it is illuminated to us it transcends itself as an objective object, that in a way is the dialogue that is created by the reversible relationship between the illuminated gold and its shadow, seen an unseen, objectivity and interpretive transcendence. I'm interested in the way in which we see the tension between accident and divinity and between objectivity and the interpretation that light will illuminate."