TUVIXEDDU
Project developed during The Photo Solstice 6, workshop held by photographer Lina Pallotta and promoted by Fondazione di Sardegna and curator Marco Delogu in Cagliari, June 2024.
“The visual landscape—bulimic and in constant motion - raises multiple questions for those seeking a narrative that addresses existential knots, contemporary issues, and reflects on the human condition. To know a place means to perceive its breath and the varied fluid rhythm that animates it: is it possible to infuse the images we produce with both our emotional participation and the inescapable respect for the individualities that make up our history? We will approach the space by capturing the flow of life through encounters with those who live there; the focus of the workshop will be to recognize and photograph the visual traces of present and past human life, produce intimate portraits that capture identity and interiority, and explore interior spaces inhabited by silent presences. It is the somewhat schizophrenic and terrifying "dance" between distance and complicity, intimacy and estrangement, which hides the fear of not belonging, but nevertheless invites us to ride the wave.“ (Lina Pallotta, photographer)
Tuvixeddu is the name of the hill where the largest Punic necropolis in the Mediterranean area is located. Carved into the limestone, the area was used by the Carthaginians and the Romans to provide a resting place for the dead. The ease of working with limestone also allowed them to build several infrastructures such as aqueducts and water cisterns. These tombs, and the larger caves as well, were inhabited by refugees during World War II, offering shelter to the living during the bombings on the city of Cagliari. In the 1900s, extraction activities began, leading to the creation of a large artificial canyon and the consequent destruction of part of the necropolis. In recent times, a redevelopment plan for the area was proposed, including the construction of a residential complex, which never came to fruition.
This photographic research aims to promote a dialogue between past and present, through the theme of inhabiting. A place meant for the dead, transformed into a cement plant and then used as a home for the living during - and after - WW2: Tuvixeddu and its neighborhood embody the attributes of the perfect stage where contraddictions and paradoxes of living take place.