The gift of silence, on display the shots that tell families and communities in the popular neighborhoods of southern Italy

An invitation to question the link between the spaces we cross and the cultural, emotional, political roots that bind us to them: it is the mission of the fourth edition of the Photography Calabria Festival which, conceived and organized by the Cultural Association Pensiera Landscape, with the artistic direction of Anna Catalano, was inaugurated on August 1 in the village of San Lucido and will continue until 12 October with sixteen exhibitions spread on the topic Common roots: places.

Between real and imagined places, territories crossed by history and memory, identity in motion, family ties, found memberships or denied, intertwining cultures, generations and landscapes, the photographic project ** stands out **Silence is a gift ** by Ciro Battiloro who focuses his goal on family and community dynamics in popular neighborhoods of southern Italy, returning the emotional density of often marginalized places.

“For some time my gaze has been addressed to the people, at the working class. Despite the inhuman and dehumanizing times that we are going through, I see in this social class a glimmer of alive authenticity that contains an unparalleled beauty in itself “explains the philosopher and photographer born in Torre del Greco. Just the town lying between Vesuvius and Gulf of Naples is one of the stages, together with the Sanità district of Naples and the Santa Lucia neighborhood of Cosenza, of its photographic journey between suspended neighborhoods, between the stigma of marginality and gentrification processes.

Along these places of the Southern Italy who bring the scars of incurable injuries on the walls and souls of their inhabitants, he also had inspiration for the title of his project: «Wandering the health reione, one day, immediately after lunch, in one of the rare moments when silence reigns, I thought and noticed this thought: Silence is a rare gift for these alleys, but in its intimate revelation, discover the naked and immense soul of forgotten humanity. It has become the title, a declaration of intent and a manifesto of my aesthetic, “he says.

By passing the folkloristic narratives around Naples and the popular neighborhoods, Battiloro focuses on the experiences of the inhabitants who represent a wealth and keep historical memory. Without Orpelli, he chooses the essential language of black and white, giving voice to the strength of the bodies of the subjects portrayed.

«Also from a popular context, I understand desires and difficulties, joys and pains. Speaking the same language, I managed to enter their lives, to establish an empathic relationship with each of them. We chose spontaneously, it is a bit as if they had come to meet me, opening the doors of their homes “confesses, while showing some shots that make up the exhibition, characterized by the intimacy that reveals the uniqueness of all existence, of every scene of daily life.

The people portrayed belong to different places and generations, but the fil rouge that unites them is the attachment to their roots. «Despite the problems that live daily, between marginalization, depopulation and discomfort of the province, they find in family relationships a form of silent and discreet resistance. In the intimacy of these places that keep their memories, they find shelter from the passage of time, from the existential crises and by all the disregarding factors that contemporary society imposes on us, such as approval, social inequalities and violence “specifies Battiloro.

Ciro Battiloro

In a continuous alternation between love and loneliness, life and death, pain and joy, Silence is a giftalso published in the form of a book, in 2024, from the CHOSE Commune publishing house and edited by Cécile Poimbœuf-Koizumi, urges amazement and knowledge in the visitors of the exhibition in the context of the Calabria Festival photography, helping to encourage the connection between worlds that usually do not communicate with each other as well as the overcoming of each preconception, in the sign of authentic love for its roots.