The hermit of volcano
Last in the ghost town
The country Apache
Kingdom of the sea
Padre Maccalli
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Experiment Via di Pré, the photographic project which I’m proposing here, is a series of news reports based on Genoa, mainly along Via Di Pré road and in and around the neighbouring streets and alleys. Even though this road is quite short (450m), a large number of people from all around the world live and work here. In this small space, cultures, religions, customs and beliefs from all corners of the planet co-exist peacefully. However, this variety is not always seen by everyone as positive, quite the opposite. Sadly, these places are often marginalized because their inhabitants are considered “different” from what people are used to. Because of this, it’s not uncommon for people who gravitate towards these “different” realities to become unintentional victims of cultural stereotypes. Aided by an exterior narrative which attributes crime and delinquency without pausing to consider the real issues which cause social exclusion, they damage those who live their lives conscientiously, respectably and respecting the rules which govern a modern, civil society. In actual fact, this area is considered a “red zone” by many of the city’s inhabitants who avoid it like the plague. Many Genoese people don’t actually know that the majority of the people living here are people who work, who have dreams, weaknesses, needs, and that they experience achievements and problems like all of us.
In this area, there’s a high proportion of charitable and non-charitable organizations which help foreigners disentangle themselves from long and complex bureaucracy or simply support them by offering those services, those practices of integration which still sometimes seem full of gaps and poorly consolidated, both on an institutional level and a collective cultural level. In the Via di Pré area, many people work individually or with organizations to make life a little easier for those who are struggling. Their commitment is to not leave anybody behind by creating and facilitating points of connection which by now are deeply-rooted between different cultures and ethnic groups. Together, the inhabitants of the area live in and share an urban habitat where they have been able to establish good practices which allow the growth of harmony, culture, respect, exchange; all the displays of plurality which should be at the heart of a modern human society.
I believe that this multi-ethnic, anthropological social laboratory, made up of many stories which are amongst themselves intertwined and where everyone plays a leading role, is a model of the ideal modern society, perhaps too modern for our times: an inclusive society oriented towards the common good, in which the concept of community is clear without forgetting one’s own traditions or wanting to forgo one’s own space. A community which is unfortunately still too marginalized because of a limitation we call “difference” and which is still considered a threat to native practices and customs. This inevitably leads to social tension and disregard for one’s neighbor.
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Kidnapped by an Islamist group in Niger in October 2018, this Italian missionary spent 752 days in captivity in Mali.
For two years he could do absolutely nothing. Since the evening of 17 September 2018, when a gang of mujahidin kidnapped him from his home in the small village of Bomoanga, in Niger, taking him away in his pajamas and slippers, Father Pier Luigi Maccalli has lost, along with his freedom, everything else. Blindfolded, with his wrists tied, he traveled for seven days on motorbikes and pirogues across Burkina Faso, to his first destination, a hideout in the savannah of Mali. There, on a mat and with his ankle chained to a tree, he broke down in tears full of questions. «Why are they doing this to me? And why, Lord, have you abandoned me?”. Father Gigi, originally from Crema, now 61 years old, is a missionary of the Sma, African Mission Society. «Those tears and those questions were immediately my greatest company. They were the rain that irrigated my desert during the time of imprisonment.” And which gave him, as the first sprout, the feeling of freedom, even within a total impediment. After those first days in which the hope that it was a sudden kidnapping gradually weakened, his imprisonment wore on in a perpetual nomadism: given up several times to different groups, he reached the border with Algeria, in Sahara desert, hot during the day and freezing at night. He ate and slept among snakes, mice and cockroaches. Without being able to celebrate Mass anymore, he became attached to the Psalms and the prayer of the Rosary. He found some shells with which he counted the tens and two sticks that he joined together like a cross when no one saw him. Prayer was the space that made him free. And where, like a modern Job, he began to question God.
3 years after the collapse of the Morandi bridge and the reconstruction of the new San Giorgio viaduct, what is the current situation of its main victims after the media spotlight has been turned off? A neighborhood was destroyed and another emerged from invisibility, a community that has lost its focus but remains attached to its identity through an urban redevelopment project which has transformed a neighborhood by redesigning perception of an entire valley within the city
Morandi Bridge 3 years later. What happened 3 years after the collapse of the viaduct on the Polcevera? How is the current situation and what has happened in these 3 years, what has been done and what has not? Which promises were kept? From the collapse of the bridge on 14 August 2018, to the inauguration on 4 August 2020, the area has always remained under the spotlight, but now that the media attention is over, what happened to the displaced people and what consequences have there been on the neighborhood and in the area? The project aims to show the current situation of the neighborhood, the rebirth of a peripheral area considered invisible, today a world center of street art thanks to the attention and initiative of committees and associations of former displaced persons that were created after the tragic event. These people whose lives have been completely turned upside down are leaving again today. They managed to patch up these 3 years which saw them displaced and tossed for months from one “house” to another, throughout the Genoese territory. Those who have changed area and life, those who have preferred to stay in the neighborhood, those who have been evicted in vain given the failure to demolish the building, those who have not found permanent accommodation and are still facing moves, those who no longer want to hear about it, those who instead fight to justice and for the maintenance of the promises made, which to date have not yet been kept given the renewal of the contract with Autostrade for the management of the new bridge. Certainly the opening of the Radura Della Memoria, which today stands exactly in the middle of that street which was gutted for the construction of the new San Giorgio viaduct, is today a space returned to the community and used as a public garden where children and families spend the free time among the 43 trees representing each individual victim. The clearing is also an important center for a community, although it no longer exists, which restores a minimum of identity through meetings, demonstrations, concerts and weekly activities which attract former and non-displaced people, who no longer live in the area, but who they are unable to separate the invisible bond they still have with that place which no longer physically exists today but which remains vivid in broken dreams and in their memory.Cape Town is surrounded by Townships. These areas are inhabited almost entirely by non-white people, who are not allowed by law to live in “Whites Only” suburbs. The unemployment is really big, reaching more then 50% but even if someone becomes successful the person still lives in the township, the community bonds are really strong there! Historically, the communities in these townships were socially marginalised and economically disadvantaged by the apartheid regime. This led to poverty and social unrest, which in turn have led to a great need for social development programmes on a number of levels. Unfortunately, very often, the government refuses to recognize the existence of these settlements, when informal, thus failing to provide the minimum services and the awareness of other South African citizens of the existence of these; this has led to a strong spirit of resilience and creativity of its inhabitants left behind. Most of the life of the township is lived inside fortune shelter called shacks– houses, shops, services, and even churches, when present, are located in these and they are extremely vulnerable to floods. Most of these crumbling buildings are made of sheet metal, which became a status symbol.
Townships often don’t have proper running water. People might have to queue at communal taps for water that will be used for absolutely everything – cooking, cleaning, washing and drinking – and walk miles back to their residence with heavy buckets. Water pipes are not well-maintained and can often block or burst, causing spills and flooding.
Sewage systems are a problem in many areas – there either simply aren’t any toilets and people have to do the best they can with buckets, or the plumbing is not up to scratch. The only couple of “streets”, is also a too big name for the lane with no asphalt and water running through it. Electricity is expensive in South Africa, and out of reach of many of its poorest citizens. You may notice home-made power lines rigged up on existing power cables or boxes, as people have “stolen” electricity they would otherwise not have access to. Needless to say, this is extremely dangerous and many people lose their lives.Shacks are highly flammable, and an upset paraffin lamp or candle can cause a raging fire that spreads devastatingly quickly throughout the area, causing much loss of life and terrible injuries.
The photographed area, grown next the airport of Cape Town, it is one of poorest of the poor township in Phillippi East called Marikana Informal Settlement. It includes more than 60,000 people. It is where the majority of the poor people live, people and children there, are in serious suffering and poverty. For various reasons this is where the children find themselves abandoned and alone at a very young age. There are no schools within 7 km. The education and future of those children is provided exclusively by few local organizations which provide shuttle service to the nearest school or hot meal and primary school service at their own costs with help sometimes of private donations.
1st May 2020 Berlin. During the first wave of the Covid pandemic that swept across the planet, the usual May Day celebration in Berlin turned into a revolt for civil rights against the unconstitutional German government’s coronavirus measures
Thousands people have ignored a ban on groups of more than 20 to gather in Berlin to mark the annual holiday for workers’ rights. Authorities deployed 5,000 police officers to break up unauthorized protests.
There were clashes, even violent, (with several injured, arrests, and charges to the media) between peaceful demonstrators and the police who were trying to enforce distancing restrictions on the demonstrators, who instead vented by raising their voices, finding this demonstration as an outlet for months of lockdown.
