Katábasis

Drawing on the myth of katabasis, the descent into the underworld, Ugo Arsac explores New York’s underground labyrinth and the invisible layers of a metropolis we think we know.

Here we encounter people rarely seen by the city above: unhoused people, tunnel workers, fugitives, poets and dreamers. Hidden in unexpected places, their voices are direct, intimate and deeply human. Their stories intersect and respond to one another, revealing a territory somewhere between refuge and confinement, freedom and survival.

Katábasis changes our perspective on the city. Beneath New York’s infrastructure, another map of contemporary America emerges: one shaped by the margins, fragile identities and a profoundly polarised society.

At the intersection of documentary, exploration and urban poetry, the work does not simply invite us to observe this world, but to descend into it.