Curated by Marco Delogu and Salvatore Ligios

Production: Zoneattive

For the first time, and exclusively for the Festival, a great exhibition will collect the images through which the two great photographers documented the worst period in mafia-related crime from 1975 to 1993, risking their own lives: "towards the end of the 1970s, we photographed murders more and more often: we got to the point where there were up to five per day".

Paraphrasing the famous beginning of Sartre's introduction to From One China to Another by Cartier-Bresson, we must also consider the following: the picturesque takes its nourishment from blood. And at least since the days of Verga and Mascagni, the blood of Sicilians has been popular: there is always a chorus ready to sing: "They have killed our friend Turiddu!" On the other hand there are some Sicilians always ready to play the pupari and tell vaguely poetic stories about the Mafia that "once upon time was good" and that "after all, is not as portrayed outside this island".

One should speak more often of this too. Perhaps on television, because there are many in our country who stay away from books. And it certainly is not only his or her own fault, as I learned unequivocally from the experience of a dear friend who until a few years ago had read very little. Knowing he was interested in matters concerning the Mafia, I gave him a book that among the many I had read on this subject, due to the pleasantness of the style and the horror of the subject, I still consider the most beautiful: Raccolto rosso by Enrico Deaglio. Like I had, he read it straight through without ever putting it down.

In the ocean of images surrounding us, I consider the work done by Franco Zecchin and Letizia Battaglia as the photographic equivalent to this book. Others before them have photographed those killed by the Mafia, but never before their photographs had the blood mingled with that immense mass of disquiet and desire of serenity been seen so clearly. It is as if Giovanni Verga were to walk onto the stage and say: this is the catalogue.

Diego Mormorio

Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Calcografia

Via della Stamperia, 6 (Fontana di Trevi)

06 69980257

OPEN: tuesday - sunday 10.00 am - 7.00 pm

TICKET: via Poli, 54

euro 6, reduced euro 4

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Metro A Barberini - Bus 175