Souvenirs, Napoli – Giovanna Silva in dialogue with Lorenzo Xiques

Souvenirs, Naples – Giovanna Silva in dialogue with Lorenzo Xiques has been the first artist residency of the year 2021 in the spaces of SuperOtium, from 15 to 28 February 2021.

A year after the first lockdown taken in Italy due to the coronavirus emergency, photographer Giovanna Silva returns to Naples, the fourth stop after Milan, Genoa and Rome, for a residency to rediscover a city proud of its architectural and urbanistic charm, and at the same time protagonist of a change that is marking the way of life and crossing all those metropolises with the highest population density in Italy.

“Since I can no longer travel abroad, I am considering a book that combines my architectural walks through the cities of Italy.
My interest is architectural, but also exploratory and performative; I take photos with my i-phone, not for lack of a camera, but precisely because the i-phone allows you to be more discreet and immediate.
I take photographs following the paths and advice of the people I interview, creating and following a ‘map’ of stories that allow me to get to know the city better.”

The “stories to be told about the city of Naples”, due to the ambivalent way in which it is often perceived and enjoyed by those who visit and live there, is one of the themes that has fascinated Lorenzo Xiques in recent years, a young curator and queer activist in the Naples area, whose latest exhibition “Vendi Napoli e poi Muori” inspired by the novel of the same name by Gennaro Ascione” held at Galleria Fonti.

“The way of crossing and living the city, in particular that of Naples, is very different depending on whether you are a queer person or a member of the cisgender society.
Queer communities, or in general those oppressed by the patriarchal system, have always had to identify and create “SAFE” places and paths where they can freely live their identities. These are places and stories that are often not beaten (neither on the road nor on the typewriter) by the people who arrive on the territory, as they are hidden places by their nature or because they are deliberately censored.”

The meeting between Giovanna Silva and Lorenzo Xiques will become the occasion for a research laboratory that will send the two actors on an advance scouting trip through the city of Naples, in search of places and stories – in a period marked by the restrictions due to the “yellow zone” imposed by the DPCM – and of new suggestions and revelations useful for the restitution of a “map” in images of the post-pandemic city.

The year 2020-21, the year of the pandemic, will be remembered above all for its images, and their ability to tell the stories – or the silences – that marked it.

The completed project has been presented on 27 February at 4 pm at the end of the artist’s residency.