Housing, 2010 - Agence VU'

Housing, 2010

Massimo Siragusa

Massimo Siragusa shares with us the deepest intimacy of inhabitants of various cities in southern Italy. Traveling from Naples to Palermo, stopping in Messina and Catania, his photographs immerse us in the living rooms of homes full of objects: the espresso machine on the kitchen table, the statue of the Madonna at the foot of the living room mirror, both sacred and profane objects that occupy the daily space.

In making these series, Siragusa not only photographs the interior architecture that governs the daily life of southern communities, he also paints a lucid portrait of the socio-economic realities of Italy at the dawn of the economic and financial crisis of 2008. As shown in his series on the Messina shantytown made in 2008, where the walls of the confined shacks, cracking under the mold, tell the financial austerity afflicting an entire community.

Napoli
2008

Like eternal theater sets, Siragusa photographs the domestic interiors of Neapolitan homes, emptied of any human presence, but filled with ornaments and objects. The photographer’s wide-angle lens sculpts the spaces, turning the modest Neapolitan studios into ample photographic playgrounds. Reminiscent of an anthropologist’s approach, his photographs document the passions, customs and beliefs characteristic of the Campania region.

Housing Shantytown of Messina

2008

Located at the tip of the Italian peninsula facing Sicily, the city of Messina is rich in history. First an ancient Greek colony, it finally reached its peak in the mid-seventeenth century. Today largely dependent on tourism, the financial crisis of 2008 severely affects the city and its inhabitants.

Housing of Palermo
2009

In Palermo, Siragusa’s photographic sensibility plays with the livid colors of the Sicilian city’s popular housings. An old school and containers occupied by homeless families; a house confiscated from the mafia now occupied by a family; squats in the northern district of the city, so many realities and examples of urban anarchy. Its name meaning “the ideal refuge” in ancient Greek, Palermo now embodies a new form of economic and social precarization. Siragusa’s photographs, illustrating the contrast between the historic old town of Palermo and the housing crisis, are both revolting and current.

Archives →

Housing of Catania
2010

In Catania Siragusa immerses us in the habitats of people with such diverse occupations as a musician, a glass bottle collector or an entire family. For some of them living in basements, white neon lights substitute the Sicilian sun beating down outside. Then, the frames on the walls and the television offer a window to the outside, a possible imagination.

ARCHIVES CONTACT