In the summer of 2023, I created a track of phosphorescent paint on a mountain trail that connects Italy and France, from Grimaldi di Ventimiglia to Menton.
The landmarks are visible at night, on the Italian side.
By following them, after a fifty-minute walk, one can reach the ridgeline of the mountain, on which a massive metal fence is placed, marking the geographical border between the two countries since the end of World War II.
In the past century this trail was known as “Death’s Pass” because, in the dark, some particularly dangerous passages caused casualties among both the Jewish people fleeing Nazi persecution and Italians looking for work in the post-war period.
In 2015, after France reinstated patrols at its border with Italy to limit the flow of undocumented immigrants, the trail has been walked once again by individuals coming from the Global South and traveling North, either to France or other European countries.
During my five-month stay in the area, prior to creating the intervention, I witnessed many different tales of people risking their life in the attempt of finding the correct path between the many that cross the mountain.
It’s in the night that the migrants walk this path, and it’s for this reason that I’ve used a longlasting phosphorescent paint, capable of withstanding the elements for the next ten years.
I have applied it exclusively on rocks and boulders rooted in the ground, to guarantee that its route won’t be altered.
My care in realizing the nocturnal photographs was to create a connection between the phosphorescent rocks and the stars in the sky, which have always guided migrants and determined their destinies.
The function of my intervention is not intended to be decisive in reaching the French border, as migrants have always used the trail, even before these tracks existed.
Instead, the intention is one of possibly providing a little comfort to the people passing through these places, an attempt to care for those who find themselves lost, frightened, confused in the midst of darkness and uncertainty.
