ROMANZO METICCIO

In undertaking this project, I set myself a seemingly simple question: How can contemporary Italian identity be defined? The project invites a critical attitude towards the fascist legacies of the past and a careful analysis of their impact today.

In undertaking this project, I set myself a seemingly simple question: How can contemporary Italian identity be defined?

Romanzo Meticcio examines the post-colonial condition of Italy as a fundamental element of contemporary life in the Bel Paese. In my research, the prefix "post" takes on a progressive historical value. The project establishes a link between the present, the colonial past, and the intranational and international waves of migration, inviting a critical attitude towards the imperialist and fascist legacies of the past and a careful analysis of their impact on contemporary society.

The decolonisation of the Italian possessions in Africa took place after the fall of the fascist government in 1943. Somalia was an exception. It became independent in 1960. The Italian colonial campaign commenced prior to the rise of Fascism. It coincided with Italy's unification and the conquest of the south. Unlike other colonial entities like France or England, which generated significant migration from their former colonies, the Italian possessions' decolonisation resulted from the decline of the authoritarian regime. The post-colonial period in Italy has a lesser profile and a relatively unknown legacy. However, it is evident in various visible forms. The legacy of the Italian colonial period extends across various sectors, including architecture and infrastructure, education, and language. Italian culture defines a 'colony' as an overseas possession, an Italian diaspora community or a territory regained during the Fascist period. This led to the creation of the 'città di fondazione', which caused a significant internal migration. This term acts as both a mirror and an indicator of changes to cultures, geopolitics, and the environment.

The narrative created by the Italian state since its unification is based on the identification of places and people considered marginal. The suburbs, the south, minorities, second-generation Italians and the question of fascist ideology have not been openly addressed and discussed in an open public debate. It has often been concealed, denied or very often minimised. It has also been marginalised. In order to navigate this complicated and multi-layered history, I decided to adopt an interdisciplinary approach, where my photographic work establishes a dialogue with the archival material through the methodology of intersectionality. This emphasises the need to consider the different marginalised categories in their co-presence and intersection, rather than as separate entities.

The photographic medium in the 1930s was a fundamental tool to justify colonial policies based on racial segregation and to represent certain situations as marginal. Photography became a performative act of exclusion. It is important to understand who was responsible for taking these photographs, who was the intended audience, and for what reason.

The work was created to gain insight into and contextualise my family's cultural background within Italian society. I was born in Sicily and raised in Friuli. My grandmother on my mother's side is Colombian. My grandmother on my father's side is Slovenian.

The process of erasing colonial history has permeated Italian culture since the Second World War. Romanzo Meticcio aims to bring this past to light. It creates new imaginaries and cultural scenarios for the future by questioning Italian identity at its core. My research does this by focusing on the marginalised in a way that goes beyond rejection and victimisation.

My work was born from a middle space between personal experience and reflective distance. It is from a position of liminality that a gaze has been formed and an alternative vision proposed. Romanzo Meticcio points to the importance of discoursive complexity in an attempt to change the given paradigm.

In the Civil Contract of Photography, Ariella Aïsha Azoulay writes: “Fighting in the visual arena today is thus an inseparable part of any struggle in the political arena, for it is in the visual arena through and by means of images, that women and man train themselves to see, think, judge, and act.”