“The way we describe and refer to the species that navigate the deep, inhospitable waters carries, by default, a connotation of ugliness and horror. We describe animals that seem to have emerged from legends, mythological stories, or science fiction: aberrant forms, monstrous heads, ghostly presences. Their sizes, too, are either very ‘small’ or ‘gigantic,’ outside the ordinary, measured against a human scale and against what is closest and most familiar to us—evoking the traveler Gulliver through strange and opposing realms encountered on his sea voyages. At the same time, phenomena such as bioluminescence—a common characteristic where sunlight cannot penetrate—provoke wonder and surprise, introducing a note of beauty and light amid such darkness. (...)

Although distant and seemingly autonomous, the abyssal zone is part of the planet, of the balance of life; understanding it therefore helps us recognize its fragility, its intrinsic value, and the role it plays within the larger whole of which we are part.

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Botero opens up the possibility of seeing the world through other eyes and from another perspective, of understanding it and placing ourselves in the position of other forms of existence, beyond our anthropocentric standpoint. Her curious and tireless gaze, directed toward remote areas of reality, does not seek to represent them according to pre-existing knowledge, but rather to challenge our own ontology—that is, our very nature of being—and to heighten our sensitivity toward other forms of life, illuminating a part of our home that is almost as strange and unknown as the cosmos”.

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Caridad Botella Lorenzo, 2025