IL MONDO DI VESNABY MAURIZIO CIMINO

In Naples there is only one legal gipsy camp, located behind the Secondiglia-no prison. When I saw this camp it ap-peared to me a scenery oneiric and real at the same time.

This was the world of Vesna, a deaf-mute little girl: the microcosm of her family was full of childish games inside deprivations and discomforts but also of socialization times.

The main subjects that attracted my at-tention were children with whom my inter-action was particularly easy. Through the photography I got involved into the dreamy world of Vesna and her five brothers. My experience was based on the empathy and on the sharing of the subjective lived back-ground.

The Roma people constitute, as a whole, an extremely vulnerable group of inhabitants in our countries. They are still rejected, after centuries of discrimination and slavery, with brutal effort. Gypsies are also coalesced because they live in precarious situations almost everywhere inside the European Union, then their existence is relegated to the borders of cities and emarginated by so-ciety.

The individuals are fragile, their lives are spent in a sense of disorientation and often passive resignation. The image of Romanies is basically the result of medieval generali-zations; an irrational intolerance is joined with a superficial information distorted by prejudice and stereotypes: often this infor-mation is artfully built by populist govern-ments (like currently in France or Italy) in-

tent on creating social confusion about the »public enemy«, again stigmatizing gypsies.

Rarely Roma people are considered in their cultural peculiarities and their complexity: they let me think to a sort of magic caleido-scope where dance and tears swim together in a musical sea of life.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Born 1969 in Washington D.C, I graduated in Italy from Federico II University in political science. I‘m Photo Lab Technician and research assistant at University of Naples Audiovisual Research Center (Faculty of Sociology). Main research subjects are ROM‘s identity, urban daily life, street photography, live music, theatre, performing arts.

LAST EXHIBITIONS

Tekne‘ Arte Contemporanea, Potenza 2010 Galerie 88, Paris 2010Tekne‘ Arte Contemporanea, Potenza 2009GiuBox Gallery, Naples 2009 Centro Cultural Rojas, Buenos Aires 2009 Casa della Pace, Milan 2009 Parcours Artistique du 3e, Paris 2009 Galerie 52, Paris 2009 Istituto Italiano Cultura/Altrimenti, Luxembourg 2008 N.est-Madre Museum, Naples 2008 Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici, Naples 2007Apparamment Cafe‘, Paris 2007 Institut Francais de Naples, Naples 2006 Universita‘ Federico II, Naples 2006 Museo di Santa Chiara, Naples 2005

BOOK

The Series of »Il mondo di Vesna« was published in colla-boration with the Instituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici.ISBN 88-8292-300-2

PRINTS

The size of the prints varies from 40x60cm to 60x90cm.

CONTACT

Maurizio CiminoPalazzo dello SpagnuoloVia Vergini 19 80137 Napoli Italy

info@mauriziocimino.com

www.mauriziocimino.comwww.galleriatekne.itwww.artistessansfrontieres.commauphoto.blogspot.com