'the land of scars' by artist angelo musco

‘The Land of Scars’ documentary by angelo musco translates into a spellbinding, multi-paneled photograph

‘I needed to make my unknown known,’ says New York-based artist Angelo Musco in the documentary ‘The Land of Scars’, an intensely intimate exploration of his 4+ year-long journey to uncover both his physical and emotional scars and present them in a spellbinding art piece by the same name. The final work is a massive, multi-paneled photograph, measuring 12 x 3.6 m (40 x 12 ft) and depicting a vast landscape composed of thousands upon thousands of nude bodies.

all images © Angelo Musco

learn about musco’s most personal and intimate work to date

‘The Land of Scars’ by Angelo Musco (see more here) is the artist’s most personal exploration from his traumatic birth to today. Musco is known for manipulating millions of nude bodies, but in his 48 years, he has never posed until now. In documenting and presenting a piece of many personal layers, he steps in front of the camera for the first time and into the work to make peace with his physical scars and imagined limitations.

This search for his truth compelled Musco to reach out and track down ex-lovers, friends, and family, inviting them to pose for this remarkable work. They would ultimately become the main characters and put the attention on the real markers in his life — with their faces, eyes, and expressions — immortalizing on paper the individuals already imprinted in his ’emotional’ soul.

Research for this work took the artist to the deserts of Utah, Nevada, and New Mexico, where the land’s silence nurtured a dialogue necessary to create this intimate and monumental work. Production required both Domestic and International travel to photograph and create the required material.

Construction for ‘The Land of Scars’ continued despite the Covid-19 pandemic adding a complicating layer to the stratification of the rocks due to the unexpected factors of working and coordinating with assistants remotely and documenting new people and missing models at a time when many people were not traveling. Ultimately, the pandemic forced unconventional ways of working due to health concerns and travel restrictions, a challenge that is also part of the story. The resulting high photograph was printed on metallic paper mounted between Plexiglass and Aluminum.