Against the triumph of appearance: scattered notes on Madalena Miranda’s in search of the Lisbon lazaretto and other isolations

Abstract

Madalena Miranda's journey to the lazaretto in Lisbon is a metaphor for a journey into the interior of everyone who has experienced the covid-19 pandemic. Just as the last pandemic marked our lives forever, other pandemics can be found during other times and in other societies. In this short text, we cross the video with other stories created by the connection between moving images and the direct sensations they create. We explore Rousseau's ethics, the savage in Robinson Crusoe and Senator La Ciura, and Boccaccio's concept of community. All the stories take us back to a moral and ethical problem that is linked to the concept of “appearance”.