Agony in the Garden

Agony in the Garden is a photographic series created by Lúa Ribeira in the surroundings of Madrid, Malaga, Granada and Almeria. Inspired by the potential of contemporary counterculture, the artist has collaborated with young people to produce images that reflect on the alienation and uncertainty of our times, giving rise to a landscape suspended in time, both contemporary and ancestral at the same time.

The sequence guides us through a barren landscape, almost as if taken from a video game, in which we encounter individuals who stand out as characters in a local yet global environment. Against the backdrop of an increasingly homogenised world, their clothes, gestures and symbols, reminiscent of – and influenced by – virtual universes and characters, evoke the extremes of hedonism and nihilism.

From this dystopian and at times absurd atmosphere, Agony in the Garden reflects on current phenomena such as material overproduction, widespread precariousness, institutional violence, and economic, migratory, and environmental crises. This visceral sense of uncertainty permeates the entire work, and Ribeira's use of religious imagery and motifs is a nod to other more universal themes and a suspension of temporality. Underlying all this is a feeling of tragedy and uprootedness that is only counterbalanced by the energetic vitality of the young bodies parading through the photographs.

In this book, the result of an extensive process of research and collaboration with her models, the artist challenges photography's ingrained tendency to “represent” reality and create testimonies, offering us a more allegorical perspective on the present moment.