Sicilia 1966/2008

Over the course of forty years, Gianni Berengo Gardin returned to Sicily time and time again. Bypassing all elements of folklore, he was interested in attending religious events, in the Easters of resurrection, documenting the Sicilian people’s relationship with the sacred. As a great master of photography, he captured the link between mourning and celebration to perfection, as well as that between devotion and curiosity, ever mindful to contextualise his subjects in the environment where such events unfold. His photos, rooted in his immersion in the crowd, render directly the sense of participation in those rites through the curious gaze of a photographer producing images not on commission but on his own initiative.The images are accompanied by the words of Ferdinando Scianna, another master of photography, and anthropologist Franco La Cecla, who delves into the origins of such rituals.