**On the occasion of the Med Photo Fest 2025**

Opening of the photographic exhibition "The Dance of Fire," a new project by Ljdia Musso.

"The Dance of Fire" was born as a synergistic project with a group of women who agreed for one day to participate in individual or group sets, challenging themselves to explore their inner selves through photography.

In the shots presented for the Med Photo Fest 2025, the protagonist Eleni Fera embodies a ritual of transformation with her body.

The fundamental thesis of the project lies in the maieutic function of art: the creative act, whether performative or photographic, becomes a primary tool for the exploration and revelation of the individual's deepest essence.

Firstly, there is the underlying inspiration of the poet, the logos of Candiani, who through words delves into the depths of being.

"Can you wait?"
"I know how to burn."
"Down to the embers?"
"Down to the embers."
"It's perfect."

Chandra Livia Candiani
from "Il silenzio è cosa viva. L’arte della meditazione" (Silence is a Living Thing. The Art of Meditation), Einaudi, Turin, 2018

Candiani's poetry provides the logos, the conceptual map of the journey; it is the body of the performer Eleni Fera that becomes the territory on which this journey takes place, physically embodying the process of "burning."

The term "performer" is crucial. Unlike a model, who lends her image to an external vision, the performer inhabits a process, embodies it, and generates it from within.

Her body is not an object to be looked at, but a subject that "feels" and that, through this feeling, comes to know.

The dance is the manifestation of this process of embodied knowledge.

Finally, there is the investigation of the photographer, the eikon of Lidia Musso.
The camera ceases to be an aggressive instrument for "capturing" reality and transforms into a more receptive sense organ, characterized by "slowness" and "listening"—slow exposures and a focus on gestures.

**Title:** The Dance of Fire
**Works:** The Awakening, The Dance, The Face of Fire, The Flight of the Phoenix
**Photographer:** Ljdia Musso
**Performer:** Eleni Fera
**Year:** 2024
**Technique:** Digital Photography
**Studio:** Caffè Fotografici, Catanzaro