I mostri
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In 1926, while the Marxist philosopher and ideologist Antonio Gramsci was temporarily imprisoned in the Regina Coeli Prison in Rome, Benito Mussolini inaugurated the soccer field in Genoa. There, a crowd of uniformed black shirts would enthusiastically welcome the Duce, who was celebrating the fourth anniversary of the beginning of his totalitarian project. The triptych I mostri [The Monsters] reproduces a triple original photographic shot that reconstructs a 270º panoramic view of the stadium during that event.

On June 4 of the same year, after the trial and the famous conclusion of the public prosecutor’s summons pronounced by Michele Isgrò (“for twenty years we must prevent this brain [Gramsci’s] from functioning”), the final sentence against an already deteriorated Gramsci is formalized: twenty years, four months and five days of imprisonment. On July 19 he was transferred to Turi Prison, in the province of Bari. 

During his imprisonment, Gramsci will write the famous quote that appears here subtly engraved on the glass used to protect the photographs: Il vecchio mondo sta morendo. Quello nuovo tarda a comparire. E in questo chiaroscuro nascono i mostri. [The old world is dying. The new world is slow to appear. And in this chiaroscuro monsters are emerging]. With this quote, the influential Italian thinker defined in a metaphorical and very effective way the rise of fascism in his country, which serves us to think today about our –every day more threatening– socio-political present.