Alessandra Calò: I wanted to call my project χθόνιος (“chthonic” in Greek) because I set out from the depths of the earth and the darkness to tell a story.
The story is my personal vision of a Mediterranean little island which welcomed me and is the result of hours of walking, observing and listening to all the living elements that make up the island: the land, the stone, the people. In this precise order, I have tried to construct (or perhaps recompose) a series of events that have characterised and made this place unique.
I started with the earth, which the “pirriaturi” (diggers) dug up to unearth the limestone.
I arrived at the earth that is now preserved in the cavities that give rise to the underground gardens.
In this place, the reality of the past and present mingles with facts, legends, possible truths and distant mythologies. Photography translates and reinforces the meaning of the cavity, understood as a generative, prosperous space.