The work was born within a
discussion on the "Mediterranean" considered in its geo-political
peculiarity, not only as a transitory territory, but above all as a point of
convergence of multiple cultures. In particular, the reflection focused on the
theme of citizenship as a grouping (or division?) of individuals. Statelessness
(apolidia, composed of alpha privative and polis, city in Greek),
is the state of subjects without any citizenship. These subjects are called
stateless persons, a-polidi. The annulment of citizenship by the state
can take place, among others, also for ethnic reasons: a policy of exclusion
which tends to denigrate differences. Redeveloping and investing geographical
derivations with a positive meaning means interpreting the Mediterranean as a
center of commonality, in which the act of undressing one's nationality is not
a privative act but constitutes a point of convergence. In the past, according
to Roman law, a form of statelessness of a sanctioning type was admissible: the
"aquae et igni interdictio" (literally deprivation of water and
fire), a provision in use in ancient Rome aimed at depriving of citizenship, as
a punishment, those who committed serious crimes and were therefore deemed
unworthy to continue being part of the community. This provision, which
symbolically deprived the citizen of fire and water, essential elements for the
political-religious organization of the city, was usually followed by the exile
of the condemned. A-polidi_aquae et igni
interdicti is a proposal of voluntary and symbolic renunciation of
citizenship, not in the negative or privative sense, as the status of stateless
person is commonly understood, but as a transformation of the reality of
belonging into a symbiotic and de-territorialized reality. This reflection
takes the form of a performative installation to be created in an outdoor
space, subjected to the natural rhythms of the absence of fire, a source of
light and energy: the creation of a triangular interstitial zone (symbolic representation
of both water and fire ) through the accumulation and dissemination of sea
salt, residue of the subtraction of water from the sea. A-polidi_aquae et igni interdicti symbolically interprets the
concept of deprivation of citizenship and subverts its meaning, attributing to
it a positive and unexpected value.