MEZZOGIORNO

This photographic set describes all the journeys which I have done in the last eight years, traveling along southern Italy.

Everything started in 2012 during a Sicily road trip, when I discovered their traditional religious celebrations, concrete cathedral, roads to wander and get lost. 

I was attracted to southern Italian regions as though I have been falling due to strong gravitational force, and, at the end, struggling to get back up. 

It is a sort of mystic deep connection with the elder phenomena, like sounds of breakage of stones and concrete by sun. 

In the last eight years, since the 2012 until today, I travelled through all the south of Italia, passing by Calabria, mostly, Basilicata and Sicily, but I discovered and understood very little about them. 

The most important thing that I knew, probably, in these times, is the necessity of a complete knowledge of south, its myths, its traditional rituals, to understand the whole Italian complexity. 

From this awareness I start my trip. 

The religious and pagan rituals reawaken a kind of curiosity and atavistic emotions. 

Depopulation and confusion used to be the accession ritual  to conformism. The unfinished approach is like a supreme work, the Asiatic and African migration flows, the slave condition of the immigrants in the fields. 

© Marco Zanella - Italy. 2019. Archeological park of Metaponto, Basilicata.
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Italy. 2019. Archeological park of Metaponto, Basilicata.

© Marco Zanella - Italy. 2017. Modica, Sicily.
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Italy. 2017. Modica, Sicily.

© Marco Zanella - Italy. 2018. Modica, Sicily. Unfinished house in the countryside.
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Italy. 2018. Modica, Sicily. Unfinished house in the countryside.

© Marco Zanella - Italy. 2013. Polsi, Calabria. Holy pilgrimage to the Sanctuary during the the "Festa della Madonna della Montagna".
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Italy. 2013. Polsi, Calabria. Holy pilgrimage to the Sanctuary during the the "Festa della Madonna della Montagna".

© Marco Zanella - Image from the MEZZOGIORNO photography project
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Italy. 2019. Reggio Calabria, Calabria. CGIL trade union activist Doumbia Mohamed during a demostration of immigrants seasonal workers.

© Marco Zanella - Italy. 2013. Polsi, Calabria. Holy pilgrimage to the Sanctuary during the the "Festa della Madonna della Montagna".
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Italy. 2013. Polsi, Calabria. Holy pilgrimage to the Sanctuary during the the "Festa della Madonna della Montagna".

© Marco Zanella - Italy. 2019. San Ferdinando, Calabria. Remains of the barracks after a big fire in the seasonal migrant workes slum.
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Italy. 2019. San Ferdinando, Calabria. Remains of the barracks after a big fire in the seasonal migrant workes slum.

© Marco Zanella - Image from the MEZZOGIORNO photography project
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Italy. 2013. Aspromonte, Calabria. Entrata dell’ex base Militare USAF di Monte Nardello. Entrace of the dismissed USAF military base on the top of Monte Nardello.

© Marco Zanella - Italy. 2019. Alessandria del Carretto, Calabria. Traditional Carnival.
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Italy. 2019. Alessandria del Carretto, Calabria. Traditional Carnival.

© Marco Zanella - Italy. 2019. Potenza, Basilicata. Via Pretoria, street scene.
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Italy. 2019. Potenza, Basilicata. Via Pretoria, street scene.

© Marco Zanella - Italy. 2019. San Ferdinando, Calabria. Official tent city for migrants. A seasonal migrant worker prayn' in his tent.
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Italy. 2019. San Ferdinando, Calabria. Official tent city for migrants. A seasonal migrant worker prayn' in his tent.

© Marco Zanella - Italy. 2017. Palermo, Sicily. Street scene. A poster of sicilian writer Leonardo Sciascia.
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Italy. 2017. Palermo, Sicily. Street scene. A poster of sicilian writer Leonardo Sciascia.

© Marco Zanella - Italy. 2019. Tolve, Basilicata.
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Italy. 2019. Tolve, Basilicata.

© Marco Zanella - Italy. 2017. Modica, Sicily.
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Italy. 2017. Modica, Sicily.

© Marco Zanella - Italy. 2019. Alessandria del Carretto, Calabria. Religious procession.
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Italy. 2019. Alessandria del Carretto, Calabria. Religious procession.

© Marco Zanella - Italy. 2017. Piazza Pretoria, Palermo old city center.
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Italy. 2017. Piazza Pretoria, Palermo old city center.

© Marco Zanella - Italy. 2017. Catania, Sicily. Abbandoned industrial district.
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Italy. 2017. Catania, Sicily. Abbandoned industrial district.

© Marco Zanella - Italy. 2017. Sampieri beach, Sicily.
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Italy. 2017. Sampieri beach, Sicily.

© Marco Zanella - Italy. 2013. Aspromonte, Calabria.
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Italy. 2013. Aspromonte, Calabria.

© Marco Zanella - Italy. 2013. Polsi, Calabria. Holy pilgrimage to the Sanctuary during the the "Festa della Madonna della Montagna".
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Italy. 2013. Polsi, Calabria. Holy pilgrimage to the Sanctuary during the the "Festa della Madonna della Montagna".

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