ZOOREVIEW


ALEX MAJOLI: LEROS

It began with a postcard. I received the photo postcard of a man and a woman laying in the sun on a beach. Only half of the woman is visible in the photo but the eye goes directly to the two hands holding, and then to the only face visible, that of a man. Contrary to the woman, the man is fully dressed, and the expression on his face is not of composed relaxation as one would expect from a beach scene. And one becomes aware of the fact that there is something odd about the photograph. It is more like a mother's hand holding a child's than that of a man and woman. And it is a somewhat funny photograph for the man's tense expression and his clothed figure "sun-tanning". And it takes a while to realize that the man is in the grip of a deep unease, of a long-standing discomfort with the world and the touch of other people. But the world surrounds him and the hand of the woman still holds his. And the picture attains that level of funny that is engendered by the tenderness of human relations and of nascent ease and comfort. Turning over the card, there is the announcement of an exhibition, but little registers and the postcard goes up into the bottom of a framed piece along with other photographs and cards. A month later, on a train from Bologna to Venezia, in a new issue of PHOTO Italian Edition (N. 32, December 1999), I read an article about an exhibition by a young photographer who had spent some time on the Greek island of Leros. Leros was a long-standing insane asylum, previously a prison for political prisoners, and the name itself (meaning dirty) reflected both the human history of the place and the legacy it left. On the island, Majoli had shot a series of photographs of the interns. Abandoned for some time to be managed by untrained personnel, the patients fell deep into a dimension of insanity than mental illness could have never initiated. Neglect, abandon, solitude and abuse. These were the terms of their existence as instituted by the state. In the article, Majoli reports that his photos had actually lain stored away, that he was unaware of their power until the photographer Ferdinando Scianna pointed out their value to him. He created a port folio which became his introduction card for entry into the Magnum Photo Agency. The article carried a short history of the series and a few reproductions. The gallery in which this exhibition had been inaugurated was IMAGINA, in Venice. Only upon reading the name of the gallery, which had sent me the postcard announcement, did I make the connection. And suddenly the hand-holding scene acquired an immensity of sense that had been subtracted from it by my disattention. The book/catalogue (Venezia: West Zone, 1999) is entitled simply LEROS, the name of the island which, in itself, expresses the view that society at large seems to have had of those interned in the asylum island. The book's impact is strengthened by the full page, full frame printed photographs. The suffering faces, the degradation of isolation and neglect, and the strength and enpowerment achieved from overcoming these same elements is evident page after page. The overall effect of the photography is rendered that much more impressive by the narrative that accompanies the images. The island asylum was reclaimed through the compassionate acts of a groups of psychiatric workers mostly from Trieste and working along-side other European case workers. The texts in the book, written by Laura Facchi, Maurizio Costantini and Franco Rotella, reflect on the nature of mental illness, the place of those afflicted in our society and the fears that drive our ignorance in facing those who present us with a face we ourselves might wear. Majoli's images bring us to gaze upon our other selves in a reportage that is as gut-wrenching as from any war. This war is fought on the home front, behind closed doors and inside our social structures, in our cultures and along the thin line that separates peace of mind and dis-ease within conventional structures. Pasquale Verdicchio November 1999, Bologna

LINKS

Verdicchio Homepage and link to LIGHTZOO:Film Reviews
LIGHTZOOPHOTO:P.Verdicchio Photography Page

ZERO: A Journal of Writing Arts
RITMO: Hip Hop ect. Announcements and Reviews
Antonio Porta: Translations of Porta's Poetry