“VIA RUPTA”

“VIA RUPTA” ROUTE The images trace fragments of a journey disjointed, sometimes schizophrenic, far from the logic of the traveler in the classic sense. The uniqueness of this path is ascribable to a modernity that generates the concept of direction, carrying within itself the seeds of rupture or breakage from the fundamental stylistic elements of travel culture as represented in our Eurocentric cultural tradition. Each element is relentlessly overturned in proceeding along this "rarefied" and "untraceable" route. This is how the danger of the sea, a metaphor of journey, connects the actor and the spectator, forcing the former to struggle to survive, and the latter to adopt a new vision. This speaks of a journey that is indispensable, but yet unwanted and unchosen, with a destination that has more the mythopoetic traits of a primitive religious ritual than of a place that can be reached in the twenty-first century. The word route stems from the Latin "via rupta", that is, a path cut through the woods by clearing the plants; subsequently route came to mean a naval trajectory. Even here, the path is a "rupta way", with the role of the forest passing in the meantime to death, and the traveler draws his route through the act of subtraction. This is a unique journey, modern, whose only direction lies in the journey itself as it unfolds, generating a "rupta way" that cannot be represented on any map. Armstrong is the fictitious name of one of the asylum seekers welcomed in one of the Molisani shelters. In this series of portraits, I tried to isolate the subject from the context, without giving information on his social origin. These are portraits without clues or captions, that leave observer with the task of interpreting, "reading" the story, through what it tells of himself, with his face and his expressions. The meaning is to put the real existence of the subject and him, in a certain place and in a certain moment, in the center. The subject has been offered to the human gaze, in a place, and in a time, and he has really existed. This photographic portrait is the proof. In this case, the function and the power of this series of portraits, are to make present and visible again not only those who lived in the past, but also those who although contemporary to the observer, are often invisible to many. So, this series of photos, gives visibility, allows us to exist, and returns dignity. The subject is not only part of a context or the representative of a socially depreciable situation but is and remains first of all PERSON. His face, his look, the expressions he offers to the lens are fragments of a story that I recorded, interpreted in the shot and in the post-production and offer the use and interpretation of the observers. With these types of portraits, photography also becomes a tool to capture the essence of the subject and its interiority. Taking a picture of a person is like entering into a relationship with him; moreover, it is to recognize him the right to exist. I want to thank Roberto Mezzanotte and Amstrong who made the realization of this project possible. The portrait is not just a given material or an artistic work but a mystery to contemplate whose secret, paraphrasing Emmanuel Levinas, his true nature, is in the question that the subject addresses me and in his being always beyond and above all. The face to face with him, it calls me to a responsibility towards him, pushing me to reply.